Has anyone here used Too Good To Go?

MSE_James · 17 January 2022 at 11:25AM

I've had a mix of good and OK experiences.

It's actually quite a good way of broadening your horizons - it's got me to try loads of stuff (eg sandwich fillings and flavours) that I would never normally select in a shop or from a menu.

Some shops are really friendly and chuck a few extra bits and pieces in the bag. Others treat you as a nuisance.

Sometimes they'll let you pick what you would like - I find that a bit stressful and would rather they choose for me.

Misslayed · 17 January 2022 at 12:19PM

I've just had a look and passed it on to young relatives who hate food waste and/or struggling. There are options to choose vegetarian or vegan, how far you are prepared to travel, time of day and area of collection, so you could opt to collect from near your place of work for example. I had a choice of Starbucks, Greggs, Morrisons and M&S and another local garage shop.

dander · 3 February 2022 at 11:45PM

I tried it but was pretty disappointed both times. First time was a local carvery and it was awful - just really old dried left over veg and a very small portion of turkey - like a token piece to prove I hadn't paid the lower price for the "carvery trimmings" bag. Was way smaller than a single portion you'd get in the carvery and probably not even worth the £4ish I paid, let alone the claimed £10. Second time I tried a Costa - which was 4 sandwiches, which was good value, but I was just disappointed that it was only sandwiches, not a mix of savoury and sweet sort of things. Just felt a bit of a waste of time, even when cheap, to get 4 sandwiches that weren't flavours you'd ever choose yourself. Supermarkets round here don't seem to do it, so I might just uninstall the app.
People I work with have raved about Olio where people give away loads of out of date supermarket stuff (and other things) for free, but the people on mine all seem to be several miles away and I'm not convinced that it's really helping the planet to drive miles for no reason other to pick up a free croissant or two!

pumpkin89 · 4 February 2022 at 10:11AM

To be fair, they are very upfront that the point of it is to reduce food waste, not to save consumers money. It's great that there are examples of huge savings, but it's certainly not guaranteed.

dander · 4 February 2022 at 11:20AM

Well, the reduced price is supposed to be guaranteed to some extent. Every bag is sold with a crossed out price indicating what the minimum value of goods should be - usually around £10.
If there are no savings, what's the incentive for anyone to buy random short-dated food?

euronorris · 7 February 2022 at 2:05PM

I've used it multiple times with morrisons and always had good experiences. Contents of my latest (below) would have been roughly £10 full price. But the last one I got, had contents worth over £27 and I also won a competition from one of the items (was a promotional pack of Mr kipling apple pies). Here is a video:

https://youtu.be/2Bibf7TwNfU

I've also used it for a local farm shop twice, both times were great, but very different. First time was all great, high quality meat products (straight to the freezer) and the second time was a tonne of Lush baked goods.

jon81uk · 7 February 2022 at 2:53PM

But is the contents really worth £27 if you had no plans to buy it in the first place or a "need" for those items?

Even for £3 I woudn't use hardly any of those vegeables and would have to then buy other items to design meals to use them up.

I'd rather shop for what I need than get stuff I don't need.

euronorris · 7 February 2022 at 4:23PM

We've had very few items that we wouldn't normally buy or eat. And the few we did, we passed on to friends we knew would enjoy them. The olive and mushrooms, and the gluten free rolls went to a neighbour for example.

My daughter loves all fruit, so that gets devoured quickly. And we get through a lot of veg for our meals. Would I usually buy that many carrots? No. Did I make a delicious carrot soup with them that has sorted lunches for the week? Yes.

If you don't think you'd use those items, or wouldn't want to risk getting stuff you don't use/like, then it's not going to be right for you. But we are flexible, and can usually make a few meals out of them happily. And any excess is prepped and frozen for another day

yellowstickerfan · 7 February 2022 at 5:31PM

I've had a few and found that they encouraged me to eat more fruit and veg than I usually do..I just have to resist the urge to get the Greggs and Starbucks ones !!