Discount food app, Goodie Bag, launches in Charleston

A Colorado-based startup, Goodie Bag, launches in Charleston this week to help local businesses manage unsold inventory.

Goodie Bag was founded by University of Colorado-Boulder college roommates Eddy Connors and Luke Siegert, who came up with the idea to address food waste and food affordability during a college summer internship.

“Part of what we do when we launch in a new area, is we work directly with locals to help us understand which shops are best, who we should be talking to, helping us raise awareness,” said Connors. “And so we did that in Charlotte and some of these, we like to call them ambassadors, connected us to people in Charleston who were equally as enthused about the local food scene.”

The duo was joined by Briana Boehmer, who serves as chief operating officer and who heard about the startup while teaching in Boulder. Locally, Goodie Bag has partnered with Meredith Fischl, who runs the popular Instagram account, @eatdrinkplaycharleston.

Connors said Goodie Bag’s path to Charleston was “guided by our desire to support locally owned businesses.”

As someone currently living in Charleston and working directly with local businesses, Jack Connors, is head of partnerships at Goodie Bag, as well as Eddy’s brother. He described how some local restaurants and cafes, especially bakeries and coffee shops, are an immediate fit for Goodie Bag.

“Shops that have pastry-forward items immediately get it, because they’re dealing with their surplus day in and day out,” he said.

Other businesses see the secondary benefits of bringing in customers to buy discounted food.

“It just puts so many more people in front of these local shops trying things that they might not otherwise try,” he said. “It’s really just a win, win.”

How does it work?

Users download the app, select their market (until Sept. 6 Charleston will be marked as “coming soon”) and peruse a list of participating shops as well as a list of shops that have products ready right now. For example, at a Colorado company in early September, a user could order a large or small goodie bag with a variety of kolaches at half of the retail price.

“A lot of these restaurant owners, when we talk to them, they say it’s one of their biggest pain points: ‘What do I do with this extra food?’” Boehmer said. “Some of them have solutions. A lot of them don’t, or they have a somewhat solution that still doesn’t quite effectively work. Putting something on the shelf at 50% off isn’t necessarily what people will gravitate towards, but if they have an opportunity like our app, it’s a different experience.”

Connors said that each Goodie Bag has to meet the same local, state and federal health regulations as any other product produced in a local restaurant’s kitchen. A bakery may not want to sell day-old bagels at full price, but the product is still edible.

“Instead of trashing those, now they can actually make money on it, and then the customer is able to get it at literally a fraction of the price, oftentimes 67% cheaper,” Connors said. Goodie Bag takes a 33% commission on items sold.

Boehmer said some shops don’t even realize how much money they lose when they discard extra products, citing a cookie shop owner in Charlotte who made $1,500 in three weeks by using Goodie Bag and selling cookies she would normally throw away.

Free app

The Goodie Bag app is free for users and participating restaurants. And while the benefits to the restaurant are clear, users get pretty sweet deals, too. Connors said Goodie Bag wants to lower the barrier to be able to afford good, local food products.

Goodie Bag users range from college students to young families to office workers looking to grab some extra treats for their coworkers. Current Charleston partnerships include but are not limited to:

The Daily
Bodega
Saffron Cafe and Bakery
Benny Palmetto’s Pizza
Daddy’s Girls Bakery
Great Harvest Bread
Little Peanut Bake Shop
Carolina Butcher & Beer
Heights Meat Market
Red’s Ice House

Anyone who joins the waitlist for Charleston before Sept. 6 (users have to be new to the app) will get $6 in credits to use for their first Goodie Bag purchase, which often covers an entire purchase.

The Goodie Bag team said it hopes Charleston will feel as passionately about this new way of supporting local businesses — and opening up opportunities for consumers to afford a wider variety of food — as they do.

“A core part of our belief as a company, based on what we’re seeing in the United States, is that most people are trying to save money on food and have really faced financial pressures from the economic climate that’s unfolded over the past couple years,” Connors said.

“And not only does that affect individuals like you and I trying to get good food on a daily basis, but it’s also impacted local business owners. … We are trying to distinctly not have Goodie Bag be something that’s a barrier to use. You don’t have to meet any criteria. It truly is for anyone and everyone that wants to support local without breaking the bank.”

Anyone who joins the waitlist for Charleston before Sept. 6 (users have to be new to the app) will get $6 in credits to use for their first Goodie Bag purchase, which often covers an entire purchase.

And the link to download the app: https://www.goodiebag.co/app-links-active