Sainsbury’s has revived its “Great Big Fruit and Veg Challenge” this summer for consumers through the Nectar app.
The promotion, which runs through 28 June, provides bonus points for shoppers who purchased fresh produce that can be used at Sainsbury’s, Argos and Habit stores.
The Nectar app helps customers track typical purchases and helps let them know if they are falling behind in their quests to healthy. If shoppers do increase those buys and do so on specific items such as strawberries, tomatoes and broccoli, they can earn more than 750 bonus points and badges.
Last year, even during the throes of the pandemic, Sainsbury’s sold more than 52 million pounds of fresh produce during the four weeks, with more than 450,000 consumers taking part. The portion increase was 3.6 pieces of fruits or veg per person.
“As part of our new brand commitment to Help Everyone Eat Better … we have a responsibility to encourage our customers to eat delicious food that is healthier for people and better for the planet, and the challenge is one of the many ways we are doing this,” said Mark Given, Chief Marketing Officer at Sainsbury’s.
Filling consumer needs
After successful runs in three of its stories Marks and Spencer says it is expanding its “Fill Your Own” refillables areas to eight more locations.
Some 60 lines of grocery items are available in those areas to shoppers, including nuts and frozen fruits. By offering them loose, M&S says it will inch further toward its goal of eliminating 300,000 pieces of single-use packaging.
New Fill Your Own areas are set to be added in Lisburn, Stratford City London, Sears Solihull, Gyle, Vangarde Monks and Wolstanton Stoke, Aintree and Meadowhall. Among the new products will be wasabi peas, dried mango and apple, cashew nuts.
“Fill Your Own has been hugely popular with our customers since it launched. They’ve told us that it’s easy to understand, offers a huge variety of the high-quality, great value M&S products they love and supports with portion control,” Carmel McQuaid, Head of Sustainable Business, said. “As our customers have navigated this completely new way of shopping, we’ve continued to test, learn and adapt the scheme based on their feedback.”
Meanwhile, UK retailer Waitrose announced it is putting more products in its refillable range as consumers have taken a keen interest in saving plastic and packaging.
Since its launch in 2019 and especially during the past six month, the supermarket chain said its Waitrose Unpacked areas have seen a nearly 10% growth. Those items were among the first in the nation to be seen in aisles throughout Waitrose stores rather than one area. In Wallingford, refillable sales have jumped more than 20%.
Among the new items being added to the stations are dried apricots, dried fruit mix, raisins, sultanas and currants. Frozen peas and frozen sweetcorn along with frozen fruit and vegetables will be available too.
