Too Good To Go. Waste found a buyer.
Too Good To Go has saved 500 million meals from being thrown away. It's the most successful food waste app on Earth, and it might have guaranteed that food waste never goes away.
THE GIST ON TOO GOOD TO GO: "Leftovers"
What is Too Good To Go?
The app has 120 million users and 180,000 shops and restaurants. The idea is simple: restaurants and bakeries have leftover food at closing time. Instead of binning it, they sell it on the app for a third of the price. You get cheap food, they get money for something they were going to throw away. Everyone wins.
What is the catch?
Once waste has a buyer, it stops being waste. It becomes inventory. Say a bakery makes 100 croissants and sells 80. The 20 left over used to be a cost. Now they're a revenue stream. Why make fewer croissants when any surplus has a buyer at closing time?
What do customers do?
They start asking why they're paying 3.50 for a croissant when they can wait till 5pm and get three for five quid. Places start losing full price sales and gaining evening discount ones, so they make more to compensate. More surplus, more bags, more discount customers.
Where does that end?
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Monetising waste creates a second tier price, and the second tier always eats the first. TK Maxx did it to fashion. Airbnb did it to hotels. Every time technology finds a way to monetise surplus, the surplus becomes permanent. We're going from an economy that wants to reduce waste to one that runs on it. Is that really too good to go?
Does Too Good To Go cut waste or create it?
Your take. One tap, then see how everyone else voted.
Quick answers
How many meals has Too Good To Go saved?
500 million, according to Huw, with 120 million users and 180,000 shops and restaurants.
Why might the app increase waste?
Once leftovers have a buyer they become inventory, so shops have less reason to make fewer.
What other businesses worked like this?
Huw names TK Maxx for fashion and Airbnb for hotels.
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The conversation
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