AIBU to think Too Good To Go is mostly disappointing?

I tried it three times and each time it was cancelled because the shop had no leftovers. Never bothered since.

Some days what is left over will be better than other days.

It used to be very good. I remember when shops genuinely gave you what was left over and sometimes you could walk away with a big haul of goodies. Now it’s another money making scheme and you get very little for your money. I hardly use it now. Occasionally get sandwiches from Morrisons but that’s it.

If it truly would be thrown away, why don't they give it away for free?

Some chains do this eg Pret in big cities used to give sandwiches to the homeless at the end of the day, and Waitrose will occasionally give me a random free item (this is usually something bagged at the deli counter by someone who then decided not to buy it).

Yellow sticker items towards the end of the day at many places often go down to 'practically free' levels eg 20p.

If you live in central London it is amazing.

I think it used to be good but used it for the last time after getting a bag with 7 vegan sausage rolls from Costa that were frankly awful.

They are a bit rubbish where we are. Mainly supermarket, Greggs, a couple of independent bakeries and Costa/ Starbucks.

The independent bakeries do their own version of TGTG bags that are far superior in terms of nice items but higher priced, then what they put on TGTG is just what they have left and is usually a much sadder affair.

Greggs round us is also sad, staff tend to pack them for themselves using the nicer more desirable stuff and again the TGTG that customers get are a bit naff. My friends mum works in Greggs and she said to message her if I order a TGTG and she will make sure it's a decent bag - they mark bags for their friends with the better stuff in.

The supermarket bags are usually quite sad as well and again I have noticed they have started to do their own version with nicer stuff and then the leftover bits are TGTG.

Carvery one near me is good
i got enough to make sausage and mash out of it (added own veg) and the rest made a full roast!

It can be pretty variable. I occasionally buy a cake/pastry bag from my local Starbucks (not many Indy places locally, particularly not of an evening) as DH and I tend to go for coffee after dinner once or twice a week. Sometimes the bags are great - the staff always vary what’s in them so you don’t end up with 3 croissants - but they can be a bit dry. What I’ve noticed is that they make the bags up from the cabinet at the till, so the person behind me paying full price for a cake gets the same slightly stale offerings!

The better way to reduce waste was if businesses planned more carefully & consumers got used to slightly less choice, particularly around seasonal waste.

I am often astonished by the number of people who keep trying 2g2g because one time they "got lucky" and got what they perceived to be a good deal. They might have paid £20 for 4 bags of utter crap since but keep going in the hope of a "lucky" one. The guys who run the app probably play on that psychology a bit to keep people engaged.

I think it depends on where you go and if you’re fussy. Greggs and Cooplands we find to be great value but are quickly snapped up. Aldi we got a box full of rotten salad which we had to throw away. If you’re not fussy, the carvery places can be great value. My partner is a HGV driver and will regularly park near to one and walk over for a bag, either breakfast or evening. You can’t choose the contents so it would be no good for me, but quite regularly he receives a nice Sunday roast with all the trimmings for £3. The alternative would be him buying a McDonald’s in the services, so this is much better value.

If it truly would be thrown away, why don't they give it away for free?

The problem with 2g2g is:

• businesses see it as another source of revenue/driving footfall to their location
• the 2g2g app is taking a cut
• overall it means its often not cheap enough to be good value for the buyer given how tired the produce often is

I used to live between zone 1-2 and could walk to collect things. Some were ok. Since moving out of London, I've never bothered because, I'd need to use the car to get to the shops and only a few places locally are on the site.

I use the olio app to both give things away and sometimes get food.

I agree they're mostly a waste of time and money. But I've only really had them when there's just me eating them. I can see the value if you're feeding teens and go somewhere like Greggs - they'll demolish pasties and cakes as part of their lunch the next day I would have thought.

Supermarkets, you risk getting a load of salad on the turn that you can't do much with unless you have a use for a gallon of lettuce soup within the next day or two. Supermarket bakery bread mostly isn't worth the freezer space.

Chain coffee shops are so over-priced that even at the TGTG price it's hardly worth it. I got a Pret one in the hope of getting a nice salad but instead got two sausage ciabattas that each had one and a half cheap crappy sausages in and a couple of cheese and ham paninis that had a scraping of ham and cheese in. Nothing nice and I could have made them myself for less - I don't count that sort of assembly as 'cooking' that's worth paying others to do for me. I also don't eat sandwiches by choice and don't like bread once it's been frozen unless it's toasted so not food I really want to eat.

The sushi/noodle type places aren't too bad, but I usually find that I'm spending the money on a few items that I wouldn't have chosen when instead I could spend the same on the one thing I do want.

Carveries are hit and miss. I've had one where I got a decent amount of meat, roast potatoes and veg that was enough for two nice meals. I also got another one that was a scraping of cauliflower cheese, few badly cooked carrots and a giant Yorkshire pudding - I complained about that one and got a refund.

I have an Ikea in walking distance that's quite good - for £2 I get enough meatballs and chips/mash for 2 small meals and you generally know that's what you're going to get.

There's one shop near me that's absolutely abusing the system. They make a tgtg 'special' and it's on offer every single day. I got it once and it was mystery minced meat, cold, tasted rotten. Not a kebab or anything. This is a kebab shop.
It was this rancid meat, manky salad and mounds of plain rice. Slathered in chili and garlic sauce?! Absolutely vile.

I had one once that was two tiny stale bits of pizza. The man was grumpy and rude as well.

One that was amazing from a wanky bakery. They let me pick my own stuff and gave me five things. All gorgeous filled ciabatta, focaccia and pizza. But they never did it again! In fact they may have been closing down hence their generosity?!

I’d have complained about that , my only issue with Cooplands is that it’s always the same items - last time I went they had no bag ready and made me feel like I was inconveniencing them as they picked out the usual cheese slice , corned beef square , bashed up mini quiche etc

Have only done bakery chains and they’ve been ok value wise really but quite repetitive in terms of what’s included at a couple. We live a bit remotely so many of the supermarkets are for 8.30 onwards pick up and I can’t be arsed heading out at that time to be honest

I’ve never found anything I want to buy on it

It’s very variable. Generally we find the Morrisons bags are quite good with a decent selection of fruit/veg and occasionally ready meal stuff and the Greggs ones are decent as usually we get a dinner for the kids out of it plus something to freeze.

The best ones we got were from Morrisons cafe. Typically for £2.50 we’ve got 3-4 sandwiches, 4-6 cakes/tray bakes and a few times smoothies or those mini carton milkshakes that are about to go out of date.

Also sometimes you get an objectively good value bag but not with stuff you want. Last weel
at Morrisons we got 4 prawn sandwiches, 4 assorted muffins and some brownies. It’s a lot for £2.50 but since none of us like prawns and only I like muffins it didn’t have much we wanted. When that happens I just shove straight on olio and usually someone else takes it

We went through a phase last year at work of getting them from Pret, just for the fun of it. Some were amazing, but some were rubbish - several repeat items or unpleasant soups. Then we sort of forgot about it.

There’s an independent bakery in our town that never disappoints.
They’re pretty much the only place I get TGTG from nowadays.
Other places I’ve tried (including costa and Coop) were mostly a bit meh.

Had some good one but don't go to Cooplands bakery, bloody hell.
The woman shouted across the shop 'whoever is waiting for cheap food form a queue outside' a few of us looked at each other and shuffled towards the door, she shouts 'come on you can't stay in here' (it was nearing closing time.)
We then waited outside and she came out and said 'ok everyone line up then move along', (there was only 3 of us).
I've never felt like such a smack head getting methadone in my life, cheeky bitch!

I got a breakfast one from a local hotel, it was 8 stale crossiants and a bruised apple, I did get a full refund!

We only buy Greg's, breakfasts from Toby or similar restaurants or carvery.

Never had bad food, volume etc.

I think you need to be choosy tbh.