Too Good To Go
An App to Find Food Bargains Near You
by Torrey Douglass
$15 of pastries for $5 from Le Pain Quotidien
Comedian Paula Poundstone once quipped that the organic melon she purchased in order to feed her kids healthy food had a window of ripeness so unpredictable and brief that she had to wake them at 3am to eat it. I get it. After spending a pretty penny on avocados, I find myself monitoring their progress daily like a worrying mother hen over her eggs, hoping I won’t miss that divine moment that occurs between the phases Rock and Mush. We’re taught that eating fresh foods is essential to good health, but if those foods are untouched by preservatives and processing, they will logically decay more quickly. As a result, if you lose track of the state of your produce drawer (or cheese drawer or breadbox), you’re going to be faced with some expensive additions to your compost pile.
An instinctive abhorrence of food waste is rooted in most cultural traditions. Expressions of gratitude before a meal can be found around the world and throughout time, sometimes as part of a spiritual tradition and sometimes simply as recognition that a person is fortunate, in that moment, to have what they need. It’s baked into our bones that we should not take our dinner for granted—we need food to survive, after all—and we definitely should not waste it.
Yet in 2010, the USDA estimated that over 30% of food in the United States is wasted at the retail and consumer levels. This refers only to food that has been selected and prepared for sale, as opposed to, for example, food that doesn’t meet consumer expectations and so is left behind in the field. The USDA estimated that waste was equal to 133 billion pounds and valued at $161B. Considering the effort, energy, and resources that go into growing food, getting it to the store, and then getting it home, it’s a Grade A bummer with sides of guilt and frustration when it goes bad.
Restaurants have a front row seat to the problem of food waste in America, and some concerned tech wizards decided to use their skills to help them do something about it. Enter Too Good To Go, a food app that connects hungry customers with restaurants looking to unload excess food. On the app, a food business posts the availability of “surprise bags”—bags of unsold (and undisclosed) food priced at one-third of its retail value—typically for $4 to $10.
Too Good To Go was started in Copenhagen in 2016 and landed in the U.S. in September 2020 in Boston and New York. A press release in April 2022 claimed that the company has “saved 100M[illion] meals across 17 countries” since it launched. Bakeries, restaurants, schools, and other organizations sign up, pay $1.79 to the app for each bag sold (in addition to the $89 annual fee), and generate additional revenue for their business by selling food they would otherwise throw away.
The app and others like it are recognized as an important piece of the solution to food waste. Food banks prefer non-perishable items, and organizations that prepare free meals require ingredients in bulk. They are not the right partner for a pizzeria that has some spare slices at the end of the day, but for folks who care about minimizing food waste, or are just looking for good food at a discount, Too Good To Go is the answer.
The app arrived on the West Coast in September of 2021, launching in San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle. Since then, it has become available in other areas, including Los Angeles. Not long ago, Sherri Smith, a writer in Sherman Oaks, took advantage by picking up a bag of mixed pastries from her local bakery, Le Pain Quotidien, for only $4.99. Sherri shared, “I got an array of pastries for a great price. It’s a neat idea, and still novel enough that several restaurant staff came out to see me pick up my order. I think we were all delighted to see the app in action.”
The app is in common use in the Bay Area as well, with participating restaurants in the North, South, and East Bays, in addition to an impressive 582 businesses just in the city of San Francisco—a yummy mix of bakeries, cafes, markets, taquerias, and more. Joe, from Cindy’s Market on Hayes Street, said they’ve used the app for almost a year and they’ve had a good experience with it. “It’s a good way to get rid of old, and beats throwing it out.” He noted that the checkout process can be a little awkward during the pick up, since the order must be confirmed on the customer’s phone, but otherwise they have been pleased with the system, using it to unload pre-made sandwiches at the end of the day.
Pam works at Peet’s Coffee in Santa Rosa and uses Too Good To Go to pass along unsold pastries—croissants, cookies, scones, and cinnamon rolls—and 1-pound bags of coffee beans. She’s been selling on the app for a few months and said that customers are enthusiastic about her bags. “It’s great for folks who just need a quick bite, or have some hungry kids at home, and it saves waste,” Pam enthused. She particularly appreciates how the app tracks the carbon saved by redirecting the food away from landfills, commenting that, “It’s nice to see the impact.”
Our country has an alarming volume of food waste, and it’s essential we all take steps to address it. There are all sorts of ways we can contribute, from meal planning so that we purchase only the food we’ll use, to composting our food waste in order to keep it out of landfills. Picking up a surprise bag is an easy way to be part of the solution. It provides yummy food at a fraction of the price while helping restaurants reduce their waste costs. Altogether it’s a pretty sweet feeling—almost as sweet as that organic melon at 3am.
Find out more at TooGoodToGo.com.
Top photo courtesy of Too Good To Go. Photo p48 courtesy of Sherri Smith.