Flashfood founder Josh Domingues explains why retail food waste persists even though major grocery chains and restaurants already donate large volumes of surplus food.
Insight
Domingues: Sustainability Goals Do Not Drive Grocery Executive or Consumer Decisions
“We don't talk about the food waste angle anymore because it's to the market that we're serving, both grocers, both consumers, like, it doesn't dictate purchasing power, and it, from consumers, it doesn't drive sales and purchases, and it doesn't, from all, a l…”
Opinion
Domingues says Canada is not big enough to build large businesses
“Canada is not big enough to build a big business in a lot of industries and sectors, in my opinion. Like, you need to go to America.”
Insight
Domingues: Grocery stores must overstock fresh food due to consumer psychology
“If there's one watermelon on the shelf, as consumers, we assume it's the worst one, so they have to overstock the shelves so that we get selection. So like, kind of like, no matter how you paint it in a grocery store, you're always going to have surplus of fre…”
Insight
Domingues: Early-stage founders must actively try to disprove their startup ideas
“I think the important thing in a really early stage is you have to get to a no. You have to get to a reason why the idea that you have is not going to work because if you can't get to a no, then you should just keep going. And you have to be brutally honest wi…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Domingues: Early Flashfood pilots sold 70% of food and brought new shoppers
“So in this, like, in these pilots, we were selling about 70% of all the food we were driving in about 25 to 30% were net new shoppers to the store, and they were spending about two to three times more on full price food when they got to the store than what the…”
Insight
Domingues: Large Retailers Limit Themselves to One to Three Innovations Yearly
“And so what I've learned is for big companies, especially retailers, they only have so many, literally every year they do future planning where there's like, these are the five critical things we're working on. And maybe there's one or two innovations or three…”