David Hammond wrote:

polster wrote:I really like the idea of this app when reading many articles about how much of the food in the U.S. is thrown out. The Too Good To Go app allows restaurants to sell food that is not sold in a given day to be offered at a discount through the app at the end of the day.

Too Good To Go app launches in Chicago; helps people buy food that’s too good to waste. The app already has 1 million U.S. users. Its goal is to reduce food waste by selling “surprise bags” from restaurants, bakeries, and other stores that have food left over at the end of each day.

Through the app, consumers can buy a surprise bag from restaurants near them and pick it up at the end of the day. It costs $4 to $6, but always be less than the value of the food in the bag.

“The food you get on Too Good To Go is food that would have been sold full price just 10 minutes earlier,”

https://chicago.suntimes.com/2021/7/14/ ... -go-launch

https://toogoodtogo.org/en

I checked out the Too Good to Go site, and for my area, it was almost all pizza and fried chicken. The latter, I get completely: Popeye's, etc., cook up a bunch of bird that they hold until customers order it. When an unsold piece of chicken goes past its holding time, they want to unload it: there's likely no health hazard, but the taste/texture of the bird may be degraded and so it's not quite up to standards.

With pizza, it might be just a way to sell more pizza. I suspect this is the motive behind Imperfect Food, which I originally liked, until I realized the fruit, which was pretty much perfect, was costing me more than pretty-much-perfect grocery store or farmer's market produce. My cynical perspective is that labeling the fruit "Imperfect" is just a plausible marketing strategy for developing just another channel for selling regular fruit (and other products) at a slightly higher price. And labeling it "imperfect" and thus "unsellable" appeals to those of us who want to reduce food waste.

For pizza, it's a way to offload pizzas that were ordered but never picked up, wrong delivery address that never got resolved, etc. I used to go to the Chicago's Pizza on Lincoln near Belmont just before closing time to see what kind of stiff they had sitting around, and if it was something I was interested in, they'd sell it to me for 40-60% off.

Drover wrote:With pizza, it might be just a way to sell more pizza. I suspect this is the motive behind
For pizza, it's a way to offload pizzas that were ordered but never picked up, wrong delivery address that never got resolved, etc. I used to go to the Chicago's Pizza on Lincoln near Belmont just before closing time to see what kind of stiff they had sitting around, and if it was something I was interested in, they'd sell it to me for 40-60% off.

I remember seeing a documentary about people ordering pizzas and not picking them up, and then checking the dumpsters later, to collect their free pizzas. So wonder if this will lead to fewer orders that aren't picked up.

Drover wrote:...to see what kind of stiff they had sitting around...

Dead pizzas, eh?

My family loves TGTG, although they use it much more in NYC than here. Dante's on, or was on a lot, and it's basically left over pizza, but is that a bad thing?

In NYC, Bread's bakery is on a lot, and it's a great deal for babka, challah, etc. Petit Chou's another place we've scored well in NYC.

I just did a TGTG pick up from Max’s Deli in Highland Park. For $6.99, I got a warm corned beef on rye, small containers of coleslaw and cream cheese, six bagels, and a container of carrot soup. Not bad!

I’ve picked up from Max’s Deli several times since they joined in April. First time was a generous portion of sliced roast turkey “dinner” with small container of cranberry sauce and included mashed potatoes, a larger container of mixed green salad, a roll and a small assortment of cookies. Other surprise bags all had a container of soup, several bagels, cream cheese & small apple pie. Once, instead of cream cheese (2 kinds) there was a small portion of smoked salmon and another time there was a packet of slice ham and roast beef (make your own sandwich?) and a container of dinner salad. I think they’re aiming to provide a full meal for the $6.99 and everything has always been fresh. If it were closer, I’d purchase more often. Their packaging is thoughtful and their soups are pretty good.

B2B wrote:I’ve picked up from Max’s Deli several times since they joined in April. First time was a generous portion of sliced roast turkey “dinner” with small container of cranberry sauce and included mashed potatoes, a larger container of mixed green salad, a roll and a small assortment of cookies. Other surprise bags all had a container of soup, several bagels, cream cheese & small apple pie. Once, instead of cream cheese (2 kinds) there was a small portion of smoked salmon and another time there was a packet of slice ham and roast beef (make your own sandwich?) and a container of dinner salad. I think they’re aiming to provide a full meal for the $6.99 and everything has always been fresh. If it were closer, I’d purchase more often. Their packaging is thoughtful and their soups are pretty good.

Additional data point: my TG2G last night had small containers of tuna, chicken, and egg salads; coleslaw; about two servings of mushroom barley soup; four bagels; two rolls; and five of those madeleine-shaped and -sized sprinkle cookies you see at deli’s with bakeries. Lunch for days.

Would not recommend Tandoor Curry Spot tho: we got a haphazardly-packed clamshell that was 80% rice and Chana masala, with about two pieces of stringy butter chicken and stale naan thrown on top. Leftovers from lunch, I’m sure. Still holding out hope they’ll call me one day and offer me a tray of that Chicken 65 as an apology…

Whole Foods is now part of the program. The location in Deerfield had a bag of bakery goods for $6.99 and a bag of “prepared foods” for $9.99

I did a surprise bag from Zeitlin's Deli in the Old Post Office. They seem to have a couple of different time slots for bags. I selected the 10 AM-12 PM slot. Six bagels were selected for me from the display. The cost was $6.60 for these bagels. I added an 8 oz cream cheese and the staffer threw in the chocolate chip cookie I was eyeing. I'm more optimistic about this one.

New vendor on TGTG. Rainbow Thai is now offering “Thai Street Food”, $18 value for $5.99.

My inaugural TGTG run was at Misericordia's Hearts & Flour Bakery on my way back from an appointment in Evanston today. I got 6 doughnuts, a giant blueberry muffin, and a spinach-filled croissant that perked up beautifully when warmed in a toaster oven. All this for $5 plus tax! I won't be a regular at bakeries, but I can't wait to try a restaurant that has more lunch/dinner-appropriate fare.