Too good to go - discounted food from stores with unsold surplus
Too good to go - discounted food from stores with unsold surplus
Too good to go is a service that started in Denmark in 2015, and has since spread to more countries. Its concept is to reduce food waste from unsold surplus in the stores, and instead help the stores sell the produce to frugal/thrifty people at a heavy discount, pretty much in "surprise" bags.
According to Wikipedia it is available in mainly Europe and North America:
As of July 2023 the company Web site covered Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.
I've seen this around in Sweden from the last year, but there are other similar services here as well, so I haven't used Too good to go yet (but I intend to do soon). I've used Matsmart a couple of times which allows me to pick the products I want, and sometimes bought Lidl's discounted fruit-and-veg bags ("Ta vara på") in the store.
I think the concept is really good on a consumer level, even though I can't say for sure just how much impact it has on reducing surplus or if it's just another green washing method for the affiliated companies.
While I loved the idea and using it a few years ago, it's very hit & miss in my city now. Some are great deals, other places especially restaurants are just using it as a coupon app, and the value of what you get isn't much better than their typical lunchtime deals, but a) you don't get to choose, b) you have to collect in a very specific time frame, c) everything is old/shortdated or lower quality/wonky.
I really wish they would do a bit more curating of the options, or at least do a better job explaining the concept to the restaurants that sign up. As it is, I'm kinda tired of risking paying £5 for a slice of cold quiche and 2 stale cookies eveytime I try it.
What I'm really into is the fast delivery apps (Gorillas, GoPuff, Getir) all seem to be doing similar bags, and because they carry less selection the items are great. I once got about £100 of steak, minced beef, chicken breast and other goodies for £10. Stocked my freezer for a month.
That meat stuff you got was a real bargain, nice.
I have been using TGTG for over a year (bought over 200 bags). It is a great way to save some money and try new things. The quality and quantity usually differ depending on what company you buy from. There are in general two kinds of companies, Supermarkets and restaurants:
Supermarkets are the most unpredictable, You will usually get many different things that are about to expire. In my experience, they are usually really good deals (20+€ worth of food for 5€). However, its essentially all stuff that didn't get sold you usually need to buy a bunch of extra stuff to really make full meals, and there might be some stuff you don't like/eat.
The other big category is restaurants/hotels. Here you will usually get between 1 and 2 meals for 5 or 6 euros. Here I essentially try every new one a couple of times and if I like the food will get a TGTG bag from them regularly. Here the big downside is that they might not have any food to give away, whereas supermarkets essentially always have stuff they have to throw away, restaurants might run out and cancel your order (or just not have anything when you arrive). You will of course get your money refunded, but now you need to still find food, at a time when most restaurants have/are about to close. And ofcourse, depending on how picky of an eater you are you might get something you don't like.
The last big problem is that the really good deals sell out incredibly quickly. I know one restaurant that has really good pasta and lasagnas that sells between 5 and 10 TGTG bags per day but always sells out within 60 seconds. So it is sometimes not really feasible to get a bag from the best places.
However, once you know your local market and what bags to get (and which ones aren't worth it). It is an absolutely fantastic way to both save money and eat good food. I regularly get food from restaurants that I would normally only go to on special occasions. And would recommend anyone to install the app and try it out!
That's a really good input and info, thank you. I must admit, I hadn't thought about ordering restaurant food through TGTG, just from the stores. This is because we mainly eat home cooked meals, and I have kind of been focused on grocery stores. It's helpful to read about how other people use these services.
I’ve used it a little. The bags can be very unpredictable. Whether it’s a good deal or not often feels a bit like a roll of the dice which seems to make it necessarily more of a novelty
Yeah, the unpredictability is part of the reason why I haven't tried it yet. But I am tempted to try soon.
I mean, they can't really prepare value, after all you're purchasing unsold rest products. If they were to start making food extra for the bags it kinda fails at what it sets out to do.
Sure, it’s the nature of it. Good cheap way to get a quick meal in London if you don’t care what you get
i wish they just had a system where you could specify things you REALLY do not want, so they can simply preferentially give you one of the remaining bags that doesn't contain that.
It's not perfect, it's not even that great still, but it at least makes the app not completely unusable by people who e.g. simply detest seafood.
Like i would honestly rather get a worse deal than get something that is simply going straight into the trash can because if i try to eat it i will vomit.
Flashfood is another one I use in the US, not sure where all it's available. I've loved what I've received via that app so far.
Thanks for the tip about Flashfood. Looking into it now.
I've tried the too good to go bags a couple of times, it will be the third today. So far I like it!
For me this is better than Karma (where you got meals) as I don't eat out a lot and prefer homecooked food.I hope to try matsmart sometime but I've never managed to find more than a couple of things I want to buy
Nice to hear good things about the service. It makes me want to try them even more.
I was going to look up Karma and other alternatives, good of you for reminding me.
I've used Matsmart when I knew that I would be having more guests over (like during the summer and ahead of christmas), and also stocked up on staple canned or dry goods. But they have a lot of weird stuff on offer like non-brand protein bars, sugar free energy drinks etc, which is why I kind of guess the stores have an unsold surplus of them.
In Cafe Nero I got a load of pastries at the end of the day, which was nice and probably 2x the value of what you'd usually pay.
I also used it in a local Deli and got a weird mix of mussels, a bar of chocolate, and a block of cheese. They were all incredible individually but were a strange combo to open!
This is great, I use it here - there's some fancy bakeries and other stores on there which make it well worth it!
It's pretty great, I don't bother with the Supermarkets because I'll only cook specific things. But there's a burrito chain near me that gives you two £9 burritos for £6. It's the best deal I've come across.