Too good to go is a service that started in Denmark in 2015, and has since spread to more countries. Its concept is to reduce food waste from unsold surplus in the stores, and instead help the stores sell the produce to frugal/thrifty people at a heavy discount, pretty much in “surprise” bags.

According to Wikipedia it is available in mainly Europe and North America:

As of July 2023 the company Web site covered Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

I’ve seen this around in Sweden from the last year, but there are other similar services here as well, so I haven’t used Too good to go yet (but I intend to do soon). I’ve used Matsmart a couple of times which allows me to pick the products I want, and sometimes bought Lidl’s discounted fruit-and-veg bags (“Ta vara på”) in the store.

I think the concept is really good on a consumer level, even though I can’t say for sure just how much impact it has on reducing surplus or if it’s just another green washing method for the affiliated companies.

  • sachasage@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    I’ve used it a little. The bags can be very unpredictable. Whether it’s a good deal or not often feels a bit like a roll of the dice which seems to make it necessarily more of a novelty

    • Regna@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      Yeah, the unpredictability is part of the reason why I haven’t tried it yet. But I am tempted to try soon.

    • Chariotwheel@kbin.social
      2·
      1 year ago

      I mean, they can’t really prepare value, after all you’re purchasing unsold rest products. If they were to start making food extra for the bags it kinda fails at what it sets out to do.

      • sachasage@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        Sure, it’s the nature of it. Good cheap way to get a quick meal in London if you don’t care what you get

    • SwedneckEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      i wish they just had a system where you could specify things you REALLY do not want, so they can simply preferentially give you one of the remaining bags that doesn’t contain that.

      It’s not perfect, it’s not even that great still, but it at least makes the app not completely unusable by people who e.g. simply detest seafood.

      Like i would honestly rather get a worse deal than get something that is simply going straight into the trash can because if i try to eat it i will vomit.