Do Grocery Shoppers Want To Be Surprised by Surplus Food?

Whole Foods Market launched a new program that enables customers to purchase “surprise bags” of discounted surplus food to save money and minimize food waste.

The program represents a partnership with Copenhagen-based Too Good To Go, which describes itself as the world’s largest marketplace app for surplus food.

Whole Foods’ customers can choose from two options:

• Prepared Foods Surprise Bags: Containing soups and ready-to-eat meals, priced at $9.99 for a $30 value.
• Bakery Surprise Bags: Breads, muffins, scones, and cookies, priced at $6.99 for a $21 value.

Customers reserve and pay for the surprise bags through the Too Good To Go app, where they’ll view pickup window times. Pickup is usually the hour before stores close, according to Axios, though timing can vary.

App users will also see how many bags are available and whether they’re sold out. Each of the more than 450 Whole Foods locations participating in the program will offer four prepared foods bags and two bakery bags per store each day, Too Good To Go told Axios.

All bags contain products normally sold at that store location.

The program supports Whole Foods’ goal of cutting food waste in half by 2030. Whole Foods said it donated nearly 34 million pounds of food last year to food programs across the country. In the U.S., food waste is estimated at between 30% and 40% of the food supply, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“As part of our purpose to nourish people and the planet, we continue to invest in new and innovative ways to keep unsold food out of our landfills and empower our customers to make environmentally conscious choices,” said Caitlin Leibert, VP of sustainability at Whole Foods, in a statement.

With more than 100 million registered users across the globe, Too Good To Go particularly supports local restaurants selling meals toward the end of the day that would otherwise go to waste. In New York City, hundreds of pizza parlors, bagel shops, and delis offer the service, with discounts usually reaching two-thirds of regular prices. Each establishment earns a rating from Too Good To Go users based on value, food quantity and quality, pickup speed, and staff friendliness.

For Too Good To Go, the Whole Foods’ partnership represents a further expansion into grocery, with overseas partners including Carrefour, ALDI, and Morrisons.

Chris MacAulay, VP of operations for North America at Too Good To Go, said, “A significant milestone, this collaboration allows us to give millions of consumers across the country a simple way to join the fight against food waste.”