Too Good To Go is a food waste app that lets users buy surprise bags of unsold food from cafes, restaurants and shops for a fraction of the price – and the Greggs bag did not disappoint
If your social media feed is anything like mine, you’ll have spotted countless people unboxing impressive Too Good To Go hauls from Greggs, packed with savoury bakes and sweet treats. I’ve dipped in and out of Too Good To Go over the past few years, yet I’ve frequently found myself let down by what’s inside.
Perhaps it’s my need for control, but the thought of ending up with a bag full of food I’d rather not eat has often put me off the app. However, after spotting countless clips of people scoring brilliant Greggs hauls, I decided it was finally time to try it for myself.
Too Good To Go is a smartphone app tackling food waste by letting customers purchase surplus food from cafés, restaurants and shops that would otherwise be thrown away.
App users can purchase “surprise bags” of unsold, good-quality food, collected at a set time, saving cash while cutting down on waste. Amongst the retailers signed up to the app are Greggs, Toby Carvery, petrol station supermarkets and even Aldi.
I purchased my £3.15 Greggs bag in Wirral, Merseyside, at 3pm, collecting it just an hour later. Upon arriving at the store, all I needed to do was swipe my order and the bag was mine
I had to support the paper bag from underneath, as it was so weighty that grabbing it by the top would almost certainly have caused it to tear. After collecting my daughter from nursery, I headed home to explore the contents of my bag. Seven items were packed inside, and the very first thing I pulled out was worth more than the entire cost of the bag itself.
Inside I found a honey roast ham and egg salad sandwich, worth £3.90, alongside a tuna crunch baguette of equal value, a pack of four jam doughnuts (£3.45), a cream-filled doughnut (£1.40), a currant bun (£1.50), overnight oats (£2.90) and a bacon and cheese turnover (£2.40).
In total, I received £19.45 worth of goodies for just £3.15 – and it’s fair to say I was absolutely delighted. There were only a couple of items I wasn’t keen on, but a swift visit to my appreciative neighbour quickly resolved that problem.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d have been over the moon with a bag stuffed full of sausage rolls, cheese and bean melt bakes and pizza, but my haul was genuinely impressive.
It also gave me the chance to sample things I wouldn’t ordinarily pick up during a regular full-price Greggs visit. The quality of the sandwiches genuinely impressed me, with the vegetables tasting wonderfully crisp and fresh and the meat proving thoroughly delicious.
All in all, it was a brilliantly straightforward experience that I’ll absolutely be repeating whenever our family fancies a treat or needs something to bridge the gap between food shops.
