Most of us like a bit of a bargain and I've used the 'knock down' shelf in the supermarkets for my meat, fruit and vegetables wherever possible for years. Combined with batch cooking and the freezer it is possible to save a lot of money once you learn not to just buy things you will not use, this also means that there is usually something nice to pop in the microwave whenever needed and I typically have up to 100 soups or meals to choose from at any time.
Anyway; one of my friends told be about the "Too Good To Go" mobile app which basically produces 'lucky bags' of short-date items in various local shops and offers them for sale 'blind'.
The concept is that everyone should be a winner;
Retailer covers most of their costs on unsaleable stock
Customer gets a bargain
Food waste is reduced
It seems that the corner shop near my house is involved in this so I've signed up to give it a try to see if it works for me. After a few days of missing out (seems they are sold out very quickly) I have been successful in buying one this morning at 09:20 with a collection time of 21:30 by which time they will know what they are unable to sell on the day.
The shop is a typical mid-sized corner store which I regularly use for milk and eggs and things I've forgotten to buy in the supermarket, they are usually very friendly and offer a good service within the bounds of the space they have available. It does not offer a huge range of fresh produce so I'm a little intrigued to see what I get for the £3.30 asking price, hopefully it won't all be things I don't like. Off to the shop……
…… Well, I'm back. So what did I get?
1 x Large portion of slab chicken and ham pie
2 x Individual meat & potato pie
1 x 2pt milk
4 x Misc Cupcakes
Selection of Vegetables (still looking good)
The pies are fresh daily from the local butchers and are very good (not cheap ones), I've already eaten the slab pie which was hot (it would have easily fed two) and the others will make a good dinner tomorrow with some of the vegetables and cupcakes for pudding. The milk will not last a lot longer so looks like the angel delight packet that has lurking in the cupboard will finally get used.
All in all, yes a significant reduction but no more so than reduced aisle in the supermarkets and with no input to product selection. I'll probably do it again but this would almost certainly work a lot better in a larger shop with a wider range of fresh goods.
The process was smooth and everything was bagged up ready for me to collect and I was served with respect despite not paying full price. The shopkeeper scanned the app to complete the transaction which has been prepaid with PayPal and I then received a receipt by email.
Obviously it is hard to judge the system on a single transaction but it certainly works as described. I would see it being useful for someone who wants an easy route to preparing their lunchbox for work.
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