An app designed to help businesses prevent food waste was launched this week in Ottawa.
Companies can sign up for Too Good To Go and sell “surprise bags” at discounted prices to customers at the end of the day.
The company said nearly 100 businesses in the city have partnered with the app, which was launched in Ottawa on June 9th.
“It’s kind of a win-win, a win-win,” said Jon Martin, vice president of franchise management for Maverick’s Donuts, one of the app’s companies.
“Winning for the customer, winning for the companies and also winning for the environment,” he said.
Martin, who also owns four Maverick franchises, said it was “obvious” for Maverick’s to partner with the app because, as a bakery that makes all of its donuts, it’s sometimes difficult to figure out what the demand. a certain day.
“At the end of the day, we freeze [the doughnuts] and because they are cake fritters, they freeze very well and people can come and pick them up the next day at a reduced price, ”Martin said.
Maverick’s offers a package of six surprise donuts that customers can pick up at the store for a third of the price they would normally sell.
Surprise bags help to reach zero waste
All Too Good To Go bags are surprises, meaning customers don’t know exactly what they’re getting.
Sam Kashani, country manager of the Too Good to Go app, said the surprise element really allows companies to get as close to zero waste as possible.
“The surprise bag really allows them to capture all their food surplus and let consumers enjoy a delicious meal or delicious baked goods,” he said, adding that companies may not know at the beginning of the day. exactly what excess food they will make. must be sold in bags.
Valerie Leloup is the co-founder and CEO of Nu Grocery, a waste-free grocery store. He said using the Too Good to Go app is a compliment to his business that is already striving to have zero food waste. (Krystalle Ramlakhan / CBC)
At Nu Grocery, a waste-free grocery store, the surprise bag usually contains perishable items such as products. The philosophy of the store is to avoid wasting food at any cost, so partnering with the app was a compliment to what they were already doing.
“It just comes as an extra piece in the waste reduction puzzle,” said Valerie Leloup, co-founder and CEO of Nu Grocery.
Leloup said they already donated items they couldn’t sell at discounted prices, or donated the items to staff or as donations, so the app is “the perfect step” between all of that.
And with rising food prices due to inflation, Leloup adds, getting products and groceries at a reduced price will help people eat healthier without worrying too much about cost.