Where does the food come from?

How does food become “surplus” and what does that mean anyway? To understand that, we need to take a step back. Supply chains and distribution are, well, complicated. The way things are made and the way they are sold, create countless opportunities for excess, aka, surplus. And surplus food often finds its way to landfill, even though it has nothing to do with the quality or the freshness of the food itself. It’s just a distribution issue. 

That’s where we step in. At Martie, we save perfectly good shelf-stable surplus food items, which have a few common reasons for getting overlooked:

Overstock

Otherwise known as excess inventory: more than what’s possible to sell in a timely manner through traditional stores and a result of canceled orders, basically—an overly ambitious strategy gone awry. 

Packaging Changes

Rebranding, new certification and a change of information on the label are reasons brands pull perfectly good goods off the shelf. (Or in the case of our can of olive oil, packaging mistakes can happen, too!)

Seasonal Items

Products that are meant to serve a specific holiday or season for a short time only fall into this category. Let’s face it — candy canes are really only fun for one month, but they’re delicious for twelve. 

Why Does This Matter?

Saved Food!

We saved over 5M lbs of food from going to waste, which is good for the environment and our economy.

Saved Water!

Saving food means we're also conserving water. Over 613.60 million gallons of water, to be precise. That’s the equivalent of 929 Olympic sized swimming pools! 

Cleaner Air!

Saving food means we're also preventing greenhouse gas emissions, produced from rotting food. Preventing over 15,010 tons of CO2eq from entering the atmosphere, to be precise. That’s like taking 3,249 cars off the road for a full year.

How are these prices possible?

Simply put, we are relentless about finding you the best deals on the best foods from the best brands. We source foods made with ingredients we trust and would serve to our own families. Shopping at Martie means you are getting a good deal, doing a good deed and providing good meals for your loved ones. 

To date, we're proud to have saved our Smartie shoppers over $9M.

Shop Smart, Do Your Part.

Based in sunny California, we are a small team with big ideas. Come on in and see what deals are in store! More questions? Text us! 213-788-1204