Wished to sell Gladmat leftovers cheaply

Gladmat, Japanese food. The photo is in no way related to the article. Photo: Pieter Wijnen / Norway Today Media

Wished to sell Gladmat leftovers cheaply, but there were none

The Gladmat boss herself announced beforehand that the festival should take up the fight against food loss by posting excess food on the ”Too Good To Go” app. That never happened. There were simply no leftovers left to sell.

 

– I was really disappointed, says Emma Reinholds (33) to Byas.no.

Before the event, The Gladmat (Happy Food) Festival announced that you could get a bag of food for NOK 40 towards the end of every day.

The food, which would otherwise be thrown away, should be placed on the anti-food loss app ”Too Good To Go”. The proceeds were to be donated to the Norwegian Red Cross.

Reinholds used the app throughout the Gladmat week but never found any food stemming from the festival there.

– Therefore I contacted both ”Too Good To Go” and the Gladmat. From both parties I was told that there was never anything coming from the festival, says Reinholds, who fears that a lot of good food has gone into the dustbins.

No leftovers

The Gladmat boss, Maren Skjelde, confirms to Byas that the app ”Too Good To Go” was never used.

She understands the disappointment of the users of the app and informs that there was not a substantial amount of Gladmat leftovers remaining on any of the days.

– We went around the area and asked the exhibitors if they had any food left at around 9 pm every night, but no one had any leftovers for us, says Skjelde.

– That sounds almost too good to be true. Do you really say that there were absolutely no leftovers after Gladmat?

– It is hard to say. I know for instance that several exhibitors are on this app from before, they may well have placed the food there themselves. I have also heard that some exhibitors chose to give away the leftovers for free to random passers-by, says Skjelde.

I have also heard that some exhibitors chose to give away the leftovers for free to random passers-by, says Skjelde.

– It also may be that we should have communicated this even more clearly, she says.

The BBQ “King”, Craig Whitton, discusses business at Gladmat 2018. Photo: Pieter Wijnen / Norway Today Media

Good estimates

But it’s difficult to sell something that does not exist unless you possess a Nigerian email address or similar.

Several exhibitors confirm the same as Skjelde: There were few or no leftovers in the evenings.

– We were lucky with the guesstimates. We were completely sold out of food every day. On Saturday at 8 pm we only had a few tomatoes and some coriander left, says Craig Whitson. The ”barbeque king” sold Tex-Mex chilli con carne during the Gladmat.

A short stone’s throw away was the tents of Zouq. The restaurant was open until midnight. Therefore, the Gladmat gang did not get any leftovers from their kitchen.

But there was not much left then, either.

– We had large cooling containers where we could store food that we had not yet used. What was left at the end of the day, we gave away to passers-by on the street, says Daily Manager in Zouq, Rizwan Rafiq, to Byas.

And so it goes on.

– We sold everything and were empty of food at 9.30 pm on Saturday, says Daily Manager at Gaffel & Karaffel (Fork & Carafe), Bjørn Erik Sandvaag.

– We were completely out of everything at 6.30 pm on Saturday. It means that our estimates were a bit off since we were bereft of anything to sell that early in the evening, says the Daily Manager at Fisketorget, Karl Erik Pallesen.

Positive

Even though the app was not used, the Gladmat boss is not very disappointed. More like positively surprised.

– It’s a good sign that the exhibitors have managed to estimate as well as they seem to have done. That there were no leftovers is also very positive, says Skjelde.

Too Good To Go

Byas wrote for the first time about the app “Too Good To Go” in January 2017. Then there were only a few restaurants and bakeries that used it.

If you are using the app in the Stavanger city centre today, you will find up to 50 nearby actors who offer leftovers at discounted prices.

 

© Byas.no / #Norway Today