I tested it out myself, and here’s what I found!
By Shaaranki Kulenthirarasa
Too Good To Go is an online service that allows the public to buy goods close to the best-before-date for a reduced price, in an attempt to reduce food waste (Jane Trang Doan/Pexels)
The Too Good to Go app is a service that aims to reduce food waste, allowing customers to connect with food chains in their area to buy food items at a discounted price.
The items are relatively close to the best-before date but are too good to go to waste (get it?). However, there are questions surrounding the legitimacy of the service and the quality of the food. In an Instagram poll, I asked users if they thought Too Good to Go was worth the price, and 80 per cent of the 32 respondents said yes.
First-year Toronto Metropolitan University student Kyla Soloway says she tried out the service once at a Tim Hortons in her hometown of Calgary.
“I think we paid around $5 and got a box of stuff and when you add it up, you are saving money, but you are definitely risking not knowing what you are going to get,” said Soloway.
She said her box from Tim Hortons included bagels, muffins and donuts of decent quality.
Social media sites such as Reddit are filled with mixed opinions of the service.
So I decided to test out the service myself!
The process was quite simple — downloading the Too Good To Go app on my phone, signing up for an account, choosing a store to buy a box from, placing the order and finally picking it up.
One thing I immediately noticed was how the boxes sell out fairly quickly, especially for popular stores and restaurants.
Since Soloway tested out a Tim Hortons location in Calgary, I decided to test out a Markham location to see if my experience would be any different.
The retrieval process was quite simple. When I went to pick up my order, I had to show the confirmation to the staff member at the store and she presented me with my Too Good To Go bag.
The total cost was $4.99 and I ended up getting a total of six baked goods. There was a carrot cake with walnuts muffin, an old-fashioned plain donut, one honey dip donut, two chocolate glazed donuts, and one spicy jalapeño pastry.
The regular price of all these items combined would be $14.33. With the Too Good To Go box, I paid $ 4.99, saving $9.34.
My experience at Tim Hortons was good, but I still wanted to test out the app with another store. Boxes were selling out fast in almost all stores, so securing a new opportunity was tricky.
Eventually, I was able to successfully select a baked goods box from a Metro grocery store in Pickering. I placed the order that morning around 9 a.m. and picked it up between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.
The total cost was $6.77, and I got a tray of pecan tarts, a box of apple turnovers, a bag of blueberry bagels, and a box of salted caramel pecan cookies. The original prices of each item were included on the boxes and totalled $20.45. All items were within one day of their best-before dates.
As for the eating experience, the pecan tarts tasted just like new; The apple turnovers had slightly lost their flaky texture, but there was no change in taste; The caramel pecan cookies were supposed to be crunchy, but were a little soggy when I opened them and the blueberry bagels tasted exactly the same as the ones I regularly buy.
Overall, I would rate the experience an 8.9/10. The original value of the goods are significantly higher than the price I got them at, and the quality was still good. The only reason why I gave the experience an 8.9 out of 10 is because some of the items tasted a bit different than they do when I get them fresh.
Each experience with the app would likely differ according to the stores you purchase from, but I can verify that Too Good To Go is legit and is pretty worth it. If you end up trying Too Good To Go, let us know on Instagram how did your experience go!