To think Too Good To Go is doing little to help food waste?

[Sapphirejane]

I could be unlucky but it seems to me that all the Too Good to Go app is doing is shifting the food being thrown away from the shops to being thrown away by the customer, whilst at the same time boosting the shop’s profits and letting them say they are cutting food waste.

For those who don’t know, it’s an app where shops sell mystery bags of food that should be edible but would otherwise be thrown away due to sell by dates, at a very reduced price. I’ve tried the app a few times and each time I’ve had bags of mostly inedible/stale food with lots of repeats (a bag with 4 limp/mouldy lettuces for example) which end up being thrown away by me rather than by the shop. My friend has had a similar experience. Are we just unlucky?

YABU - it’s a great system and you’ve just been unlucky with your bags.

YANBU - you are just paying to do the shops dirty work for them.

I find the supermarket bags are awful but restaurant or cafe ones are usually good value.

I’ve only done it from restaurants or cafes but never had anything bad. We did go puff once which gave us about 30 tomatoes and a lot of blue top milk but we made soup and gave the milk to a friend.

Olio is a far better idea and app

Maybe I’ve just been unlucky then, I tried Costa yesterday and got three of the same vegan bacon roll (tried one and was not pleasant) and 2 stale muffins I gave to the birds.

I don’t think it increases waste, but I agree on the profits point.
My local Yo sushi seems to cook FOR the App, which really isn’t the point. Always a big queue and it’s always shit stuff (a lot of rice), so an easy way to make extra money. Not a actually the genuine waste from the day.

I’ve never done supermarket ones only cafe ones and they’ve always been great!
soup, baguette and a croissant for £3.50 kind of thing - I really like the app!

@Sideorderofchips - Olio doesn’t seem popular here sadly, my app has just one woman who lives about 20 min drive away posting.

@GyozaGuiting - I don’t think it increases waste, just passes the buck from shops who’d have to show write offs to customers. It appears I may be unlucky, I may try some more independent type places if they show up on my app.

I've had one stingy sized but delicious bag from a vegan cafe (never seen them available again) several very generous bags from a donut shop (they stopped doing it) but after wasting time, money and food twice with two different ones (supermarket and cafe, filled with nasty, squashed, unwanted crap) I've given up. They need places to separate out vegetarian and non vegetarian also as there is no point taking the risk as a veggie if you get a bag full of meat.

Think you've been unlucky, this is my usual haul from Costa!

Contact the DM or the sun or which mag and they might shame them for the crap they are selling.

Our local ice cream manufacturer is on the app. They sell off end of line and less popular flavours. However all of their flavours are really nice, so it’s not an issue. We had a mint / toffee flavour and a fruit sorbet.

That's a shame about no olio near you as its such a good thing

And Subway. With adult children in the house, it can be really useful!

I’ve had good experiences, Greggs & Spar are especially good. Don’t forget to check the ratings before you buy and avoid any below 4 stars.

I find this app brilliant so it's a shame you've had bad experiences. I use it for my local bakery, always great stuff that doesn't go to waste in this house.

I find the too good to go stuff is very expensive, too expensive for us to take a risk on. We use Olio, and our local one is good, with lots of stuff from Tesco and Pret on there.

Also- if you take whole lettuce out of the bag and wrap in kitchen roll you can normally get a couple of extra days from it

I'm a shop owner - it doesn't boost profits, the value of the bag is supposed to be 3x what you sell it for, so e.g. £12 value sold for £4. I suppose some places might have margins big enough that means they still make a profit on that but we definitely don't, it's a way of reducing the loss and food waste..we use them to pass on unsold good but always still edible/enjoyable and we would only do bags if we have at least some variety to go in there..another good reason to support independents over supermarkets maybe 😊

You have to be very selective about where you choose. I have had some great bags so far, and only one which I didn’t like so much, and that because I didn’t like the flavour of pastry. Independent bakeries etc are usually a good bet

@minesalargered oh wow! That looks amazing, I’ve never had anything like that.

I think I’ve definitely been unlucky! I may try in the large town when I am there for work next. I may have more luck that way.

@catflycat - I meant the shops would profit where otherwise there would just be a loss. No issue where they are passing on edible food but the experiences I’ve had so far looked like profit for a large corporate for no value to the customer. I will try my nearby large town though as it does look like I have been unlucky. Sadly I have very few independents near me, only a few large chains (Tesco/Costa/Coop etc).

You have been unlucky. I get one every week from M and S garage. Always lovely.

I remember my friend (owns a vegan bakery) looked into using Too Good To Go as a way to sell her surplus stuff at the end of the day but after costs (hers and the fee too good to go charge businesses) she would make 50p ish on a magic bag. She decided she’d rather take the leftovers home or drop it at family/friends homes after shutting as it would just not be sustainable for a small independent place to use unfortunately

in my area the local carvery chains do meat cut off bags, veggie bags etc which are super popular and always sell out within minutes so there must be some places that do decent stuff on there

I've had some good bags from garage supermarkets etc. Tends to be a lot of convenience food IME, so not always great for healthy eating. The last twice I've had the bag cancelled within an hour of pick up time, after I had set off incorporating it into my journey (yes Morrisons) so some places leave it to the 11th hour to try to sell it first. I can understand this, but cancelling this late isn't great for planning. I gave up on it for this reason, too many sandwiches, and yummy but too many treats.

I tried most places near me and so know which ones don't work for us

So Morrisons with a huge box of leftover veg and lettuce -not useful for 2 busy adults.

Greggs with a few cakes -brilliant

local cafe who gives us 6 plain croissants-not bothering trying again..

Not had many where I actually had to get a refund for actually inedible food (or not worth full value).