Is "Too Good To Go""Too Good To Be True" ?
Recently, I started taking advantage of the app Too Good To Go, a platform that helps business reduce their food waste by selling otherwise thrown-out food to customers for a discount (usually 67% discount or 1/3 from the original price). According to their website, Too Good To Go operates in 17 countries and has 1350 restaurants, supermarkets, or other food sellers committed to their mission. The concept seems extremely simple: Rather than disposing excess food at the end of the day, these companies can offer food packages online at a certain pick-up time. Customers can then pick and chose what kind of food they want and reserve one of these packages for a given time. Then, when the time has come to pick up the food, the customer shows their reservation to the responsible person and confirms the pick up in exchange for leftovers. The payment works through the app so there is no need to exchange any money at the sight.
Once the customer picked up the order, they can rate the overall experience from 1 to 5 while also highlighting certain pre-determined categories such as:
Great amount of food
Quick collection
Great value
Delicious food
However, you could also leave a negative review which is visible to other customers. Additionally, you can chose certain categories as well such as vegetarian, gluten-free, etc.
In my experience, the pick-up is usually extremely easy and the value of food incredible. I've only had a few bad experiences that I will illustrate in my YouTube review videos and blog posts.
In general, "Two Good To Go" takes advantage of a resource that would have otherwise been wasted and tries to distribute it to potential customers rather than across landfills.
In my opinion, the key success factors of the application can be split among benefits for the business owner and the customer:
Store Benefits:
Reduced sunk costs
Less waste accumulation
Additional income
Customer Benefits:
Cheaper food
Intrinsic satisfaction of doing good
The company claims that currently 49.9 million people worldwide are using the app and about 110 million meals have been saved so far since 2016. Considering that the app currently only operates in major cities and is extremely scalable, I believe we will see a better and more widely used Too Good To Go network in the upcoming years.