Greenlight Grocery President Matt Vann is introducing a new way to help local restaurant owners, daycares and even hotels save money and stay in business.
“We know that once they see it and once they seen what it could do for their restaurant, hotel or convenience store or daycare, it’s literally the difference between the lights staying on and the lights going off,” said Greenlight Grocery President Matt Vann.
Launching only two months ago, Vann says the online digital ordering guide puts transparency in prices, all completely free for those businesses signing up.
“What I envisioned Greenlight Grocery being is this problem-solving piece of the food cost puzzle,” explained Vann.
Greenlight Grocery also allows customers to see their options side-by-side, resulting in big savings, at a time Vann believes is crucial as many businesses are spending more due to rising costs.
“Our average customer right now is buying about $300,000 a year in groceries so you know you’re talking about savings for our average customer being about $48,000 a year,” said Vann.
“It doesn’t feel great,” said Yum Village Owner, Carasai Ihentuge.
Yum Village is located right in the heart of Cleveland State University, and while it’s only been at this location for nine months, the owner tells News 5 inflation hasn’t made things easy for his business.
“I remember about two years ago out of Detroit, a case of chicken would be about $40-$50, now I’m paying anywhere from $90 to $110,” said Ihentuge.
“We just want to help restaurants,” said Vann.
Within the process of establishing Greenlight Grocery, Vann says it has also helped them create a second company called ‘SupplyNow.'
“Think of SupplyNow as a Swiss army knife that restaurants, chefs, managers and owners can use when they have a crisis for any kind of supply issue,” said SupplyNow Founder Aaron George.
A resource helping Yum Village maintain daily operations in tight situations.
“It gives me a nice amount of relief knowing that I can scan a barcode, and someone is going to respond in a short amount of time,” said Ihentuge.
Greenlight Grocery is available all across Northeast Ohio, hoping to expand outside the state next year.
“I want to see small businesses all alike survive,” said Ihentuge.
They’re currently beta testing with 49 restaurants and are accepting more applicants.
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