Looking to possibly save on groceries?
An app that allows customers to buy restaurant food at steep discounts is now letting users order surplus pantry items for home delivery.
Too Good To Go is testing selling brands of shelf-stable items such as mac and cheese kits, packaged mocktails, candy and snacks.
The Too Good To Go Parcels come from food manufacturers. They never made it to stores due to circumstances such as outdated packaging, mismatches between demand and supply, and approaching “best before” dates, according to the website. “Best before” dates are noted in product descriptions.
The items can be stored at room temperature and are safe to eat even beyond their “best before” dates, the app website says.
“Best before” dates are guides related to food quality. In contrast, “use by” dates are guides related to safety.
Grocery deals on Too Good To Go app
Recent parcel offerings include:
- Annie’s Kids Mac & Cheese cups, with a retail value of $10, priced at $6.99.
- Melinda’s Ghost Buffalo Ranch dipping sauce (two 12-ounce bottles) with a retail value of $14, priced at $6.99
- Tic Tac Chewy Sour candy (five 1.8-ounce bags), with a retail value of $15, priced at $9.99
- Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa Mix (two 26-ounce containers), with a retail value of $20, priced at $12.99
- Cure Hydration powder (two eight-count packages), with a retail value of $17, priced at $13.99
- Nature Valley Dipped Caramel Granola (three 11-ounce packages), with a retail value of $19, priced at $12.99
- Lavazza Intenso Espresso Single Serve (two 10-count single-serve packages), with a retail value of $18, priced at $11.99
The products are delivered within four to seven business days. The delivery fee is $9.99 or free on any order of at least $50.
What is Too Good To Go?
With a mission to reduce food waste and slow climate change, Too Good To Go launched in Europe in 2016 and operates in 19 countries, enabling diners to purchase unsold food from nearby restaurants, bakeries, cafes and convenience stores.
It expanded to the U.S. in 2020.
Too Good To Go Whole Foods expansion
The home delivery option follows the app’s recent expansion of Whole Foods offerings.
Whole Foods, which had been selling bags of bakery items and prepared foods through the app this fall, added bags of produce, seafood, meat, frozen foods, dry goods, refrigerated foods and flowers to the lineup of offerings on the app.
The bags, valued between $21 and $30 each, are priced at $6.99 to $9.99 on the app.
How the Too Good To Go app works at restaurants
A user would open the app to find local restaurants with pickup times and prices for goods. Most offerings are Surprise Bags, the contents of which customers won’t know until they pick them up.
A customer pays through the app and picks up their orders during the designated period, usually right before a shop’s closing time or early the next day.
Contact Midwest Connect reporter Cheryl V. Jackson at cjackson@usatodayco.com or 317-444-6264. Follow her on X.com: @cherylvjackson or Bluesky: @cherylvjackson.bsky.social.
