Islanders will be able to save money on their food shopping while saving the planet thanks to a ‘world first’ mobile app which launches in the Channel Islands this week.
Gander, which has developed the world’s first real-time mobile app, to help food stores clear significantly more of its reduced to clear, often yellow labelled, food produce, will roll out in the 19 Morrisons Daily stores in Jersey and Guernsey this week.
Developed by a team in the Isle of Man, the Gander app launched in Northern Ireland in late 2019 across 310 Spar, Eurospar, Vivo and VivoXtra stores and has seen significant success. Data gathered from app, which has been downloaded more than 55,000 times, shows 45% more reduced food is being sold, preventing it from going to waste and shoppers have been making an average saving of 56% on their weekly food shop. Yellow stickered items which automatically appear onto the Gander app are also selling 40% quicker than they would have previously and on average, stores using the app sell 85%-100% of their yellow stickered food.
Gander is unique for this industry as it displays reduced to clear food and in real-time, by linking with POS technology used in stores, automatically pushing the reduced food products to the mobile app, as they are stickered in-store. Similarly, when that item is sold it is automatically removed from the app, providing an instant feed of all reductions in-store at any time making it simple and effective for the shopper.
Food waste is a huge issue with Jersey throwing away an estimated 14,000 tonnes of food waste per year and it was estimated that households in Guernsey threw away 4,200 tonnes of food waste in 2018. Although recycling habits in Guernsey are changing, which has seen reductions in residual waste in 2019, the Gander app can make a significant difference in ensuring reduced price food is ‘matched’ with islanders who want to buy it.
Ashley Osborne, Co founder of Gander, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with SandpiperCI to roll out the Gander app in their Morrisons Daily stores across Jersey and Guernsey. The Gander app takes significant strides towards giving retailers and shoppers alike the ability to have a more sustainable and mindful approach to food shopping”.
“Environmentally, food waste is a crisis and is one of today’s growing issues and it is forecast to increase substantially by 2030 unless serious action is taken. A significant proportion of this waste is completely avoidable. For retailers reduced food can be exceedingly expensive and at a time when margins are being squeezed, this is revenue sitting on their shelves and that shoppers locally would love to buy, they just don’t know it is there.”
Mike Rutter, SandpiperCI’s Retail Managing Director says: “We are delighted to have partnered with Gander to bring this unique initiative to our Morrisons Daily stores in the Channel Islands. We believe it will benefit our customers through easier access to reduced price food products while also helping to tackle environmental problems associated with avoidable food waste. We know that many of our customers feel strongly about this issue and by introducing the Gander app we will encourage islanders to purchase in a smarter, more sustainable way while also making savings”.
Ashley added: “Generally only 5% of a retailer’s existing shoppers are shopping for reduced to clear food. Gander changes this by putting this same information in the hands of significantly more motivated shoppers which in turn will increase sales of reduced product. For a retailer, this will increase revenue otherwise lost to waste, increase footfall and reduce waste. For the shoppers it will provide them with the ability to access local bargains and save money, while allowing them to
positively address the problem of food wastage. A win, win!”
The Gander app can be downloaded via the Apple or Android app stores and can be used to locate reduced items in Morrisons Daily stores. It is expected that the app will be adopted by further retail outlets throughout 2020. In addition to the Channel Islands and Northern Ireland, Gander is rolling out across the UK and ROI to help drastically reduce waste at a National level.
