At 6 p.m., bakers have to throw out trash cans full of day-old pastries. They’re a little old, but not that old. Bakeries simply dispose of excess food that can no longer be sold, increasing food waste.
That’s where Too Good to Go comes in. The app is a Denmark-based app founded in 2015 that allows businesses to sell mystery bags filled with unsold food at the end of the day at a discount. On Nassau Street, participating restaurants include Le Kiosk, Milk & Cookies, Fresh Ó Tea, Maman, and Ficus Restaurant, Cafe & Gallery.
According to the Too Good to Go website, more than 100 million users and 170,000 companies have registered worldwide. The app has a niche but loyal following, with a Reddit page for sharing and reviewing the contents of the Mystery Bag, and a website outlining detailed reviews and alerts for the companies featured on the app. In addition to Nassau Street, other popular Princeton-area chain restaurants like Just Salad, Cava, and Pure Green, as well as grocery stores like Whole Foods, are all participating in the app.
I reached out to several local restaurants to learn more about their reasons for joining the app. Ficus Restaurant, Cafe & Gallery told me it registered a year ago because of its commitment to “sustainable eating and living concepts.” Sometimes students buy mystery bags, but family members usually buy them. Their bags usually contain tea, boba, and leftover food from restaurant kitchens and other events. Milk & Cookies believes the app will help “keep inventory moving and reaching people.” They signed up for Too Good to Go several years ago when it expanded its service from New York City to Princeton.
To see if this bag was really worth it, I ordered a bag from Milk & Cookies, a local cookie store that offers gluten-free and vegan options in addition to traditional cookies. A popular spot for sweet treats, it also serves ice cream, lattes, hot chocolate, shakes, and brownies.
Milk and cookies store.
Lulu Pettit/Daily Princetonian
The hardest part was actually buying the bag. Most days, only a few bags are available at 6pm, but they are purchased almost immediately. I had to turn on notifications in the app to receive a reminder when the bag was available. Too Good To Go has specific hours for picking up orders at partner restaurants, and I needed to pick up my order at Milk & Cookies between 6 and 7 p.m.
Too Good To Go bags are handled slightly differently by each company. I bought it at a local bagel store near Philadelphia, and when I arrived, the bag was assembled and I got extra bagels, bread, and pastries at random. But Milk & Cookies prepares your order in advance, so when you arrive to pick it up, a neat little paper bag filled with cookies is already waiting for you.
Inside the bag were six large, thin, chewy cookies: Double Chocolate, Chocolate Chip, Matcha, Classic Sugar, Funfetti, and Snickerdoodle. Even though it was probably a day or two old, the cookies were still fresh, with a soft texture and a sweet, unique flavor. At $3.25 per cookie, this bag usually costs closer to $20. But it was only $6 via the app.
Mystery bag of milk and cookies.
Lulu Pettit/Daily Princetonian
Too Good To Go remains a light gamble. The food you receive may be a little too old and stale, and you have no control over what products are given to you in the mystery bag. If you’re picky about your food or have dietary restrictions, you may run into trouble with this platform as you can’t make special requests when ordering. For example, Milk & Cookies has gluten-free and vegan cookies, but we were unable to specifically request them. Even if such an option were offered, you would most likely face cross-contamination with other regular cookies given in bags.
Although not ideal for people with dietary restrictions or picky eaters, Too Good To Go is a great app to help fight food waste. One study by ReFED estimates that in the U.S. alone, restaurants throw away 11.4 million tons of food each year. Using this app, people can not only contribute to sustainable causes, but also bring new customers to local businesses and try places they’ve never eaten before without spending a lot of money. Masu. Overall, Too Good To Go is an easy way to try new foods for less money. Give it a try next time you’re on Nassau Street at night.
Lulu Pettit is a member of the Class of 2027 and a staff writer for The Prospect from suburban Philadelphia. She can be reached at lp3153.[at]princeton.edu or her Instagram @itslulupettit.
