AIBU to think Too Good To Go is mostly disappointing?

[Cool45]

What do you think to too good to go app???? I've found 90 percent to be absolutely crap but odd few fantastic!!!I'm not exactly skint when it comes to buying food but I love the idea of zero food waste

The only shops near us that participate are Aldi and a fish & chip shop. No way I’m paying for an Aldi bag and the chippy looked ok until I saw the reviews online that said people had been ill from eating there. Plus they only have a 5 minute collection window 🤷🏻‍♀️. There’s occasionally a collection at Starbucks a bit further out which has been hit and miss and they cancel the bag at least 50% of the time anyway.

i work in a city and there’s rarely any bags during the timeframe I’m there but I’ve had bags from Upper Crust in the station and they are dire.

We had a UK city break last year and used TGTG every day. Couldn’t believe the choice. A few things were naff as just got 4 of the same item which I didn’t like anyway but a couple of the independent shops were amazing. If I lived in a city with great TGTG choices I’d probably use it all the time.

It’s leftovers that are going out of date, sometimes you get lucky sometimes not. Once had one cancelled 15 minutes before pick up time as they obviously didn’t have anything to go. It’s pot luck.

I’ve had one or two that have been Ok (Pret) but mostly awful.

And they sometimes look at you like you’ve got two heads when you go in asking for the bag you’ve purchased.

The bakery ones are always going to be rubbish. I did it once and we just got crap. My son and his ex-girlfriend used to get a TGTG from Toby Carvery every once in a while and they said it was always lovely with the full range of food. I’ve never done that as the pickup is quite late but they were late eaters.

I’ve thought about it as I live right in the centre of town but when I see the ‘hauls’ online they seem to be loads of sandwiches. I get that the sandwich was worth £5 when it was sold in the coffee shop but it’s not worth it at home.

The pret round here always do fab tgtg bags, and there's an independent one close that is fab for that. I've had some disappointing bags too though.

All of the co-ops near me do them. We treat them like a freezer dinner - every time there has been enough to make a dinner if you squint and don’t mind one person having a ready meal while someone else has a quiche.

Tried a bakery one a couple of times - wouldn’t again. Stale bread is no fun.

It really depends - I've occasionally got one from a coffee shop in our village (a big chain) and it's been very disappointing, but a local independent Indian restaurant does one for £5 and they basically give you stuff for a meal - curry (can choose chicken or veg), rice, naan and a side. It's meant to be a meal for one but with the sides there's just enough to spilt between the two of us (bonus is that collection coincides with school pick up... and it's 5 minutes from the school so a great Friday dinner - pick up bag, pick up Dd, refrigerate and hat up when kids in bed😆)

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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

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

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’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

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 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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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 bakery ones great but big chain costa etc abysmal