Do you want to do something positive for the environment and at the same time save on lunch and dinner? T.oo Good To Go è un’app per smartphone which allows you to fight food waste and save money, offering benefits to consumers, businesses and even the environment. We chatted with Eugenio Sapora, Country Manager of Too Good To Go in Italy, to let us explain how this app works. And especially: what can we find inside the Magic Boxes?
Too Good To Go: how the app against food waste works
Born in Denmark in 2015 she has arrived in Italy in 2019, Too Good To Go is having great success: but how exactly does it work? For users who want to save on some ingredients and prepare for dinner, lunch or an aperitif, there is nothing easier.
Once you have downloaded the app on Android o iOSyou just have to open it and if you want to activate the geolocation (alternatively, you can search for your area on the map). In a variable radius according to your preferences, you will see all the premises participating in the initiative.
Choose your Magic Box
Select the area, you will find several businesses that do not want to waste food: from the bakery to the large supermarket. You can browse offers by categories, search directly for the name of the shop or save your favorites.
In addition to indicating the name of the place, you will find one description of the Magic Box it sells. In fact, you will not have a precise list of foods, but only the categories to which they belong: the meaning is precisely this, to avoid food waste. You can for example take a salty Magic Box at the bakery, without knowing if you will have pizzas or focaccias in the package. Also, it will be indicated if they are Magic Box Large, Small or Medium, according to what you need.
The price of the Magic Box, in any case, will be one third of the market value: if you buy a € 4.99 box, you will have the “products that until an hour before were on sale at full price, for 15 euros. But that the trader should throw away the next day ”explains Sapora.
The other information you will find is rlook at the pick-up time: Too Good To Go doesn’t work as a delivery, you have to you go to the store to collect the package. In this way, traders can make themselves known. And maybe the next time you need a product you will go to the store to buy it directly.
Lots of selection and variety for those who buy (but you have to run)
We have tested some Magic Boxes in our area and the choice was so wide that we could focus on groceries, pastry shops and bakeries that we already knew (and appreciated). The content was of quality, although perhaps we would not have chosen those products: but the joy of surprise compensated well the lack of choice (beyond the bargain price). The experience is therefore absolutely positive.
In Italia Too Good To Goo lo trovate in over 600 municipalities, with more than 22 thousand commercial partners (which saved over 9.7 million meals). So finding your favorite shop is likely, especially in big cities but also in small towns (although you may have to take the means or the bicycle to get to your destination).
However, keep in mind that there are also 6.6 million users on the app. “For our most popular partners, sometimes you really have to rush to book your Magic Box, because those available disappear immediately “.
How Too Good To Go works for merchants
Sapora explains that on the app “we have everything from the neighborhood bakery to the large-scale distribution chains, because businesses of all sizes want to avoid throwing away food”. The main benefit for them is that they do not have to throw away food and feed the food waste. By selling the products at a third of the price, they don’t make a real profit. But there are expenses and they avoid throwing away their good products.
Also, they can have a image return. Both because they collaborate in an activity that is good for the environment, and because they can reach customers who may not have known them e win them over with their quality. And then, since you go to the store, they can do the so-called ‘upselling’: while you pick up the Magic Box in the pastry shop, maybe you see a perfect cake for the next evening’s dinner and buy it.
For businesses that want to join the Too Good To Go network, the effort is very minimal. Sapora explains that they only have to fill in a form before being contacted by an app person who guides them. Alternatively, there is a sales group that proposes the initiative to shopkeepers.
Then there is one training on the mission of Too Good To Go and a clear and transparent explanation of how to manage prices and promotions. Also, they learn to prepare the Magic Boxes and manage the app. Once the business has started, there is always an active support service for traders.
But there is also a costumer care for us consumers. “No Magic Boxes are in themselves an act of trustso we invite our users to let us know if there are problems with some businesses to understand how to solve them together ”.
Too Good To Go asks traders for one fixed commission on the Magic Boxes sold, without any type of odds or minimum barriers. Because the idea is that I determine the price and quantities based on food waste. If one day they run out of stock, they simply don’t post availability on the app. Indeed, the goal is to reduce waste: if one day we no longer throw away food, Too Good To Go reach its goal (and absurdly, we would no longer need it).
An advantage for the environment
We wanted to leave the food waste issue for last in the article, although it is the thing that intrigued us and convinced us to call those of Too Good To Go. Because it seems to us that it is an activity convenient both for those who buy and for those who sell even without considering the environmental aspect.
But the environmental impact is there. On average, in the world yes they waste 2.5 tons of food, one third of the total produced. Without that waste, food production would produce 10% less greenhouse gases. Plus, food waste is worth it 1.2 trillion dollars worldwidesomething particularly intolerable considering that 800 million people suffer from hunger.
Some of the food is wasted during processing, but the merchants do account for 12% of rejects, retailers 5% and in 53% are home. So, if we already learned not to waste the food we have in the fridge or pantry, it would make a difference. But it is a problem that it must also be addressed at the level of distribution.
Every Magic Boxon average from a kilogram of food, allows do not frustrate the production of 2.5 kg of CO2 employed to produce it. If you bought one Magic Box a week, you might save up to 400 euros year and you would avoid wasting 52kg of food by avoiding that 130 kg of CO2 are nullified.
In short, Too Good To Go works across the board: as a solution to save money, to associate merchants (who avoid food waste). But most of all it works for the environment.
If you are interested, visit the official website.