When Too Good To Go launched in 2016, it wasn’t long before it started soaring in popularity. Its simple goal – to reduce food waste by allowing businesses to sell surplus food at a discounted rate – had clearing caught people attention.
The “magic bags” offer no choice for buyers and are made up of whatever is left from the day. Some days, there won’t be anything for sale and other day’s there might be more than usual.
Once you purchase the bag you will be given a time slot that varies depending on the business.
Unlike bigger cities, Stirling doesn’t have much to choose from. In total there are only nine businesses on the app, only two of which are small businesses.
Some places are more popular and so they sell out fairly fast. It’s a good idea to keep an eye on anywhere you like the look of so you can nab a bag before they sell out.
I opted to get a bag from Café Sixty Four, a new café located on Upper Craigs, and Morrison’s in Sprinkerse retail park. Both bags were three pounds.
The bag from Café Sixty Four was much fuller than I expected. The woman working did say it was especially full today, so I really lucked out. The pick-up process went smoothly and only took a couple of minutes.
They don’t tell you exactly what each thing is so it’s a bit of a guessing game – they do warn you if there is meat inside though.
The contents were as followed:
- Two croissant sandwich’s (one ham and cheese, one cheese and tomato)
- One camembert, ham and sweet chili chutney baguette
- One portion of chicken soup with two baps
- One chocolate twist pastry
- One small baked potato
The quality of the food was incredible, and I was really impressed overall. It was far too much for one person though so I shared it out with my flatmates.
The Morrison’s bag was also pleasantly surprising. I was the first person to arrive for the bags, so they hadn’t made them up yet and the wait was around 10 minutes in total.
The contents of the bag were:
- One turnip
- One head of iceberg lettuce
- Three red peppers
- A punnet of strawberries
- A punnet of blackberries
- 150g of mixed wild mushrooms
- A 2.5kg bag of potatoes
All the foods were really high quality and a good number of them had a few days before they expired. I was able to freeze some of it and give away anything I wouldn’t use to friends.
All in all, I would definitely buy a bag from both places again. I think it is 100 per cent worth it for any students looking to be more sustainable or who want to save a little money.
Featured image credit: Too Good To Go.
3rd year Journalism student | Film and Television Editor @ Brig Newspaper
[…] you’re not familiar with Too Good To Go, it’s an app designed to fight food waste. Customers pay a reduced price to rescue a mystery bag […]