Since it’s virtually impossible to know exactly how much food they will sell on a day-to-day basis, many restaurants and grocery stores are usually left with excess food at the end of the day – most of which ends up getting tossed.
Too Good to Go is an app that aims to prevent this by connecting businesses in the foodservice industry directly to consumers so that perfectly good food doesn’t go to waste.
The app, which launched first in Copenhagen, lets customers search for “surprise boxes” of leftover food at discount prices from participating local restaurants and grocery stores. Once they have eyed something they like, customers place their order and pick up the food at the merchant.
“We’re always going to have something left over a majority of the time because we want to make sure everybody has something to get. So the one great part about this app is it bridges that gap for us—it gives the customer a cheaper entry point with random goods in the bag,” says Brandon Issa, regional manager at Brooklyn Fare, one of the participating grocery stores. A box of bakery items worth $12 sells for $4, he says.
Because of logistical hurdles, restaurants and grocery stores often can’t donate surplus food to local food banks or shelters. By letting a restaurant offer a mystery box rather than letting customers request specific items, and by making the customer responsible for picking up the order, the app helps prevent food waste while enabling the restaurants to recoup some of the food’s cost.
