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Article in App of the Week category.
Too Good To Go Saves Money & the Planet
Awarded one of Apple’s coveted Apps of the Year awards, Too Good To Go helps you save money while eliminating waste and benefiting the environment.…
Awarded one of Apple’s coveted Apps of the Year awards, Too Good To Go helps you save money while eliminating waste and benefiting the environment. It’s a slam dunk of an app that also excels in design with well-presented information and easy navigation.
The premise of Too Good To Go is simple. Using the app, you can search your area for participating stores and restaurants that have surplus food that would otherwise go to waste. You place your order for a mystery bag with ingredients or meals and then go pick it up at your designated time. Since these are surprise bags of excess food, they’re also affordable. In the end you save that food from going into the landfill and creating surprise CO2 and you get yourself a discounted meal or groceries.
Unfortunately, there are no participating restaurants in my area but I was enthralled with the easy to use discovery tab. You can view a list of restaurants which works as expected when you choose your zip code and proximity, but I think the map was much more impressive. Essentially you zoom in and out of the map, lining up a highlighted circle that you want to search. Pan around, adjust the map size, then tap the button to show stores in that locale. It feels so intuitive to use and yet I’ve never seen an app help you find locations so easily.
Too Good To Go has a similar feel to other food-shopping apps but I think looks more elegant. It has a dark green color scheme that even matches the logo-adorned bags that the stores package the food in. The primary landing page of the app, the discovery tab, is broken down into sections such as recommendations — based on what you previously ordered, what’s available to pick up now, favorites, and more. When you view a bag, you can see the retail price and what the store or restaurant is charging you. It gives you an idea of whats in the bag, overall store rating, and highlights from past customers.
They’re really leaning into the eco-approach here — hence that green color. When you view your profile, it boasts about how much money you’ve saved alongside how much food you’ve saved and how much CO2 you’ve prevented. Assuming you consumed everything that came your way.
I love the motivation behind this app and it feels like wins all around. Cheaper food for you during a time we could all use that, restaurants and grocery stores make money on what would end up in the trash, and the environment has at least a bit fewer emissions. Coupled with the excellent app, there is a reason Apple chose this as one of the best apps of the year.
But enough about other people's apps.
