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Following a successful trial in Bristol and London, Iceland has expanded their food waste saving, yellow sticker alert system to over 900 stores.
In partnership with food waste app Olio and Gander, Iceland has developed a system whereby food close to its sell-by date is listed in real-time, so you can plan your shop around discounts you want to grab.
The Iceland yellow sticker alert on Olio rolled out nationwide on the 4th of August. If this is the first you’re hearing of it, then read on and we’ll show you how it works and what you can find.
How does it work?
Like us, you might’ve heard about this story and been a bit confused about how it actually works. To find out, I downloaded Olio, set up my account, chose my location, and looked for my nearest Iceland.
And woah. This partnership makes it far easier to grab yellow sticker discounts. When visiting my local shop, I never saw this amount of yellow stickers on the shelves.
On the app, you can find fresh produce, chilled meats, dairy, and prepared foods. It lists the discount, the specific Iceland store (including its distance from you), and how many are left in stock. Flick through the slideshow below to see some examples:
(I chose the location of a Food Warehouse as I was curious to see whether the bigger shop would have more options.)
Once you find some items you want, add them to your watch list. This is more of an interactive shopping list, you don’t reserve the yellow stickers. You have a look to see what’s available, then head to the shop and search for it.
It isn’t like to reserving a surprise bag on Too Good To Go, the discounts you find at Iceland on Olio aren’t put aside for you. By the time I get over to that Food Warehouse, that yellow sticker joint of beef might’ve been nabbed by another shopper.
However, if you choose the closest Iceland to you, there’ll be less chance of the item having already been sold.
For example, my little Iceland is a 10 minute walk from my house: I checked Olio, found a discounted pack of pork mince, sped walk down to the shop, and got in quick. The tortoise loses out in this game.
If Iceland were to refine their yellow alert system, it would be nice if you could get items held for a short amount of time. Iceland could limit the hold time and number of held items per person, and put the items back on the shelf once the time had elapsed.
It a good idea, it just needs refining. We’re excited to see how the partnership develops.
Trying it out
At lunchtime on a Tuesday, I scanned the local Iceland section of the Olio app. Midday on a popular shopping day for the local pensioners? My hopes weren’t that high for a mass load of yellow sticker discounts. I did, however, find a 23% fat packet of beef mince.
Shoes on, I did the 10 minute walk to the shop. Iceland was chock-a-block, so the likelihood of a yellow sticker being left on the shelf was low. Luckily, my walk wasn’t in vein.
The price listed on Olio matched the one on the yellow sticker. Great start. The product also matched.
Once I’d paid and left the shop, I hopped back on the Olio app to test whether the live tracker worked. And it did. No more yellow sticker discount on beef mince was available at my Iceland. It’s good to know that the yellow sticker discounts on the app are updated near enough as soon as its sold.
