Whether you are a business or consumer, the “Too good to go” app is a marketplace allowing businesses to sell surprise bags of food to consumers.
Food retailers can then advertise bags of left over food at bargain prices. Retailers then profit by shifting left over food stock and perhaps by gaining extra sales from the visit.
For the consumer, it can be a lottery but the excitement is you never know what you will get. You may get a favourite food choice or something new to try. There is of course a possibility of gaining items you do not want or like.
The app has been running a few years now. When we tried it before, I remember we got a bag that included fresh pasta parcels and even cold ice coffee drinks from a local service station. We also gained a selection of cakes from a local coffee shop.
In my area, bags are often available from the co-op, Shell, Aldi, Butterwick, Costa and even the Harvester/pizza express/Greggs, Starbucks and more. The options will of course vary by area and how far you are willing to travel.
Collection times vary dependant on the goods and some bags can be timed for breakfast, lunch or dinner bags.
This last week, I experimented with a couple more bags. A Starbucks bag on a Friday evening provided a lot of 5 sandwiches which was pretty good. Then the Shell garage provided some variety.
Some bags sell out well in advance and the number of bags on sale will vary. You just need to make sure you are available to collect during the set time.
Benefits to the retailer may also be that the customer ends up buying other items. Certainly at the Shell garage we ended up buying an additional £40 in fuel.
Expiry dates vary and of course will have short dates. The Shell bag had items with the same days expiry but some of the time a could be frozen. The Starbucks expiries were more generous. Bags will then have content that could be worth at normal price around the £12 mark. That varies and the app will advise. The value of the content in the Starbucks bag of just one item usually sold for more than the price of the bag.
I did make one mistake during the week. Some stores have more than one location in a town, so make sure you are going to the right location and you have left enough time to collect within the allotted time slot.
Collecting the bag is simple, you just need to show your phone and the code which displays on the app.
Prices for surprise bags can range on average between £2 to £4. Though I have seen some for a little more.
The app is available to download on the Apple and google play stores.
