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.

Yeah and the fact they're bloody awful

£5 from a little waitrose at my local shell station netted me everything in the picture as well as 2x brownies, 2 x millionaire shortbread and 2x pain au chocolat.

I'm home alone this week, so I will freeze the paninis, rolls, brownies & shortbread and choc cake for when the kids get back. The rest of the food will feed me lunch & dinner for the rest of the week (soup & sandwich, or a ready meal with a salad on the side). Hate an all-day breakfast sandwich so I will probably put that in my food caddy unless my neighbour wants it.

Could be beginner's luck but I'm very happy with this!! Just need to get in some salad bits and milk for my coffee and I'm sorted for the week for £5.

Whoops no picture - here's my haul

Oh I love this app. We get a veggie carvery from a local place for £3 each. It’s our treat now instead of takeaway. Good fresh veg, mash, roasties, gravy, Yorkshire’s etc.

That's an amazing haul!!

It used to be a lot better prior to COVID. I'd go to a local coffee place on a frequent basis and would end up with enough food usually to cover me for three days, for 3.50.
Has gone down hill a lot since then but can be very good value.
I try not to rate places where I get good value as then there will be more competition on the app!!

I've just reserved my first one for 9pm tonight from the M&S at the garage up the road so shall post back here...

Yanbu. We live in a small town and the big supermarkets don’t seem to get involved .the smaller shops that do get involved seem to give away very random things . It’s like they make no effort really .

the smaller shops that do get involved seem to give away very random things
But it is going to be random, they’re going by use by dates not “these things go well together”

Exactly. There’s info all over the app to say “these bags are random” but people are still complaining because it’s not a good variety, or they have to reheat it?!? Mind boggling.

It is luck of the draw. I’ve bought lots of bags since we discovered the app last year. We used to get a huge crate from a local vegan baker for £4 and that stuff was great, it all got eaten but he’s stopped doing it now. Morrisons bags have been good in the past but recently they’ve been absolutely terrible and haven’t even amounted to the £3 we paid for the bag so we’ve stopped buying them.

Pound bakery are the best, they just give you so much stuff and with 5 DC in our house it gets eaten. Greggs is ok too. No experience with much else, those are about the best options in our area. It’s a good idea but definitely pot luck.

The shop has to offer bags in the expectation that they will generate waste the following day, but they don’t usually know what waste they will get. Maybe this explains why the bags are sometimes disappointing, are cancelled causing a wasted journey.

If shops consistently have food waste they need to design it out. I think that’s why a lot of shops have come off the app in my area. One bakery I know for sure has chosen to sell out rather than bake a surplus, due to the rising energy costs.

It doesn’t make sense if people making a car journey to collect a bag of food, and even less so if they then waste some of it. It’s much better for shops to sell end of day items for 10p, then at least customers are already in the shop for other items and haven’t made a special journey to collect. They are choosing what they want and so the food is less likely to be wasted. Everyone is happy.

Actually my local veg shop has a variation. If you’re a regular customer, quite often you are offered some short dated food for free with your purchase. Often a bunch of ripe bananas, or last time there was fresh peas. Not always, only if they have them going spare. It is useful and makes shopping there more affordable.

We got two meals from Toby Carvery and it could have fed 4 at least!

We once got one from our local bakery which we go to regularly. Sadly no Pasties 😢 but all the other stuff was great. Got about £12 of food for £3. Would definitely do it again, I was just curious as I’d heard so much about it.

SpongeBobJudgeyPants and Sapphirejane thank you for correcting me - I went back in and found the option to specify veggie-only. I've bought a bag from my local bakery this afternoon so I'll report back with what I get!

Love Too Good To Go !

Have used it from a variety of suppliers

Never disappoints

We eat a wider variety of food

We don't waste food

Definitely depends on the quality of the food and the shop in the first place. It also makes more sense if things are within walking distance or can be incorporated into a journey that you're making anyway. It took a bit of trial and error but now I have a bakery where I always go to stock up my freezer and it works really well!

I’m not sure if the app has redeemed itself or not. I tried a bakery chain at our local big station (walked there for the PPs!). The contents is perfectly fine but I almost wasn’t able to collect as nowhere in the app does it say the place is actually on a platform and you need to go through the ticket barriers to get to it. We have a large food court area you don’t need a ticket for so assumed it was in there. A kind station employee took pity on me.

@SmallPrawnEnergy - I know it’s random but selling just a bag of lettuces already limp and mouldy for £3 is still crap and unless you have a garden of rabbits is going to get thrown away regardless.

I tried the local m&s one, but personally found that £12 of m&s ready meal food wasn't worth £4 to me. Everything I could have gotten cheaper!

Varies. Budgens local to me seems to add things not out of date like soup or potatoes or tons of bread

one few mikes away is better

m&s is meant to be good but as their pick up time is usually 9 I can’t do

where as local ship and budgens is 730 onwards

had some lovely ones from local corner shop chicken mince thst I froze veggies cakes yogs

costa /Starbucks cake or sarnies not so good

Cost cutter is the local shop so if that shows up. Usually good

@Sapphirejane fyi...rabbits dont eat mouldy lettuce!

I deleted the app OP, tried it with a local cafe, got 2 packs of egg and cress sandwiches and a sad looking muffin. 😂 Definitely a waste of money.

A few of my stash’s