My box of produce from Giant Eagle, bought on the Flashfood app, had plenty of items for $5.Sean McDonnell, Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Want to save money on groceries? Paying $5 for a box of random produce from Giant Eagle might be a good bet, judging from my own experiment.

I’m talking about Flashfood, an app that lets customers buy discounted food that’s close to its “sell by” date. The app has a host of items like prepared foods, steak, fruit juices and yogurts. I’ve seen candy, dips and even medicine for sale on the app.

Recently I got four salmon filets for about $4.50 a pound, half the sale price of $8.99 that week.

But what keeps catching my eye are the “boxes.” Often labeled fruit box #40 or veggie box #88. They’re a little bigger than a shoe box and they’re stuffed with produce that needs to be sold.

The catch is that the app doesn’t list what items are in the box. There’s just a picture, leaving at least some of what you’re buying up to chance.

When I saw a box with half-a-dozen bell peppers I took the plunge. Here’s how it worked out.

I paid $5 for “veggie box #109.” Like I expected, I got six bell peppers - four green, one red and one yellow. Each was a little wrinkly, but I figured $5 for six peppers was a good enough deal.

But I got plenty of other items: sweet potatoes, a package of basil, a package of sliced baby belle mushrooms and a bag of cherry tomatoes. So did a head of iceberg lettuce, four tomatoes and four tomatillos, the little fruits that look like green, unripe tomatoes with husks.

Some items looked perfectly fine, others needed to be cooked soon. But a surprising amount was marked organic.

I went online and looked up prices, and it turns out my $5 got $29.75 of food.

Even at clearance prices, it would have cost me $15 to get this much food. So in my view, buying the box tripled my money.

Is buying almost expired food worth it? A pessimist might say I bought food about to be thrown out. An optimist would say I rescued perfectly good food from going to waste.

Keeping food from landfills and helping the environment is part of Flashfood’s pitch.

Giant Eagle started introducing the program with 34 stores in 2021, and more than 430,000 pounds of food waste was diverted because of the app. The chain said the equivalent of 159,000 meals, and 834,000 pounds of CO2 emission not entering the atmosphere.

My own app says I’ve saved $18 so far. And I’ve kept carbon dioxide out of the air, the equivalent of three miles of driving.

The other big question: Will I eat all the random stuff I bought? I hope so. I’ve cut up the bell peppers and froze them so I can cook them with hash browns in the morning. The sweet potatoes became a side dish. The mushrooms got thrown into a stir fry with steak and the cherry tomatoes became a quick pasta sauce.

I guess I’ll use the tomatillos in salsa? I saw another box full of hot peppers, but I don’t need a dozens of habaneros and poblanos.

This pepper tasted fine, but it did have some wrinkles when I bought it off the Flashfood app. There's almost always a trade off when saving money.Sean McDonnell, Cleveland.com

My weekly meal plan is changing to use some of the vegetables. You can say it makes me creative or say it’s extra work. You’re probably right either way.

If you want to try Flashfood or the produce boxes, or you want to save on groceries in general, I strongly recommend using your freezer to your advantage.

Giant Eagle recently announced the app would extend to 173 Giant Eagle and Market District stores. However, I don’t see the produce boxes at every store.

I have seen them at Giant Eagle stores in Middleburg Heights, Berea, Brooklyn and North Olmsted.

According to Giant Eagle, every stores can offer produce boxes on the app “when they have the appropriate inventory to create them.”

It likely depends on each store’s produce department, and if they have blemished or extra produce to sell.

The deals on Flashfood are like the clearance stickers a shopper would see in store. So it makes sense that each store would have different items, and maybe deal with discounting clearance differently.

Local Meijer locations also use the Flashfood app. I’ve only seen the produce boxes occasionally at the store Brunswick. But if Meijer starts doing it, I’m sure those boxes will be worth a try.

Saving You Money is cleveland.com’s and The Plain Dealer’s new column about saving money. If you’re feeling the pinch of record inflation, you’re not alone. The goal of Saving You Money will be helping readers save and highlighting resources that can help.

We want to know how we can help you save money. Send your questions and comments to smcdonnell@cleveland.com.

In any case, start small and with one box. I wouldn’t recommend buying five and hoping the ingredients mesh into multiple meals.

To give Flashfood a try you’ll need to download the app and see the deals at your local stores. Then if you find a deal, you’ll buy it and pay through the app.

The stores have a “Flashfood zone,” which is a cooler and a shelf normally at the front near the checkouts. An employee can grab your order for you.

And make sure you pick it up soon. The food is on the app because its close to its sell by date. I’ve heard of people showing up late and not being able to get their order, because it was past the date.

If you try the app, please let me know.. Email me at smcdonnell@cleveland.com. I’m curious to see if others can save this way.

Previously - Saving You Money

Is inflation shrinking your savings? Here’s what you can do about it

What’s the catch with the gas discount programs like GetGo’s AdvantagePay and Circle K’s Easy Pay?

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