Red’s Best is an innovative, Boston based seafood wholesaler that sources catch directly from small, community-based fishing boats. Their mission is to sustain the livelihoods of small boat, American fishermen while also sustaining the fisheries for harvest.

Misalignment of supply and demand

Every day, the Red’s Best team works to sell the whole catch of the local fishermen they work with, but often it is difficult to match supply and demand. This scenario can sometimes lead to high prices for the chef, low prices for the fishermen, and a surplus of food that is perfectly fresh and delicious. Put simply, it’s a losing proposition for everyone.

“The problem we face is that our industry has created a "demand driven supply chain", meaning the chef decides what to cook and then the wholesaler finds them what they want,” explained Red’s Best Founder Jared Auerbach. “Inevitably the chef will be in a high demand, low supply scenario while at the same time the fishermen we represent will be in a high supply, low demand situation with the fish they actually caught.”

How they’ve used Spoiler Alert to help

To tackle this challenge, Executive Assistant Anna Long from Red's Best posts their surplus food on the Spoiler Alert Marketplace.

“Red’s Best’s experience selling seafood and shellfish on Spoiler Alert has been awesome,” said Anna Long. “It is giving us the platform to sell species that don’t have as high of a demand, but still offer great value, both economically and nutritionally, to consumers.”

At Spoiler Alert, we work with so many great non profits that are always looking to source more healthy protein options as they are often found a higher cost. As Jared from Red’s Best says,

“Every bit of demand is crucial to the fishermen we work for. Seafood is not exclusively for the rich. It is a renewable public resource that we all deserve to enjoy”.

Luckily for those looking to post their own surplus, Anna says that the simplicity of Spoiler Alert is her favorite feature, “once we were familiar with creating posts and where all of the essential tools were located within the site, it became a breeze to create new postings”.

Local Impact & Sustainability

By selling their surplus catch on the Spoiler Alert Marketplace, Red’s Best is helping to support our local fisherman by closing the gap between supply and demand. In addition, they are also providing an affordable option for those in need of more healthy protein sources. While doing all of this, they have managed to innovate by creating their own logistics platform that allows them to track a single catch from the docks at the point of unloading all the way to the consumer through QR codes. This advanced tracking allows them to reduce the distance the food travels between the boat and the consumer’s plate while streamlining the process to sell the varieties they get everyday.