Too Good To Go

Deliveroo’s rapid grocery service Hop has extended its partnership with Too Good To Go so customers can buy surplus food from its dark stores otherwise destined for landfill.

By using the Too Good To Go app, customers in Cambridge, Bristol, Brighton and Manchester can purchase a ‘magic bag’ containing £15 worth of groceries including near-date fresh fruits and vegetables, store cupboard staples and ready meals, for £5.

Customers then collect the bag – the contents of which are unknown until they are collected – from their local participating Hop dark store directly, between 3pm and 10pm each day.

The move is “preventing edible food going to waste and making it easier for consumers to access low-cost, more sustainable food options”, Deliveroo said.

The four-city expansion of the partnership follows a trial of the tie-up from its Hop site in Battersea, London in June.

“We’re excited to be expanding our partnership with Too Good To Go across the UK after seeing the demand from our customers in London earlier this year,” said Stephen Goldstein, EVP, global head of grocery & Deliveroo Hop at Deliveroo.

“At Deliveroo we want to make it easy and convenient for customers to get their hands on healthy and affordable groceries in the most sustainable way. This partnership with Too Good To Go helps make sustainable eating more accessible for thousands more people,” Goldstein added.

Several retailers have forged a partnership with Too Good To Go to offer its users ‘magic bags’ filled with food that would otherwise be discarded, among them EG Group, Caffè Nero, Morrisons, Spar and Midcounties Co-op. Aldi launched a seven-store trial with the app across the north-east in July, and East of England Co-op commenced a similar trial in May.

Deliveroo Hop’s rapid rival Gorillas has partnered with Too Good To Go in Europe since 2020 and in the UK since last year. In October it revealed the tie-up had saved 17 tonnes of surplus stock from landfill in the UK, which equates to the same volume of CO2 emissions emitted from charging a smartphone 7.6 million times.

The app, which launched in 2016, has 9.8 million users in the UK and has sold a total of 14 million magic bags here.

“We’re thrilled to be launching our partnership with Deliveroo across these new cities, having already received fantastic feedback from Too Good To Go users who are delighted to have Deliveroo on the app,” said Sophie Trueman, Too Good To Go MD UK & Ireland. 

“Too Good To Go is all about reducing food waste and in doing so, enabling people to access quality food in a more affordable way, and in a way that does right by our planet too.

“We’re proud to have Deliveroo on board and joining us in the fight against food waste, and I can’t wait to see the continued impact of our partnership in the coming weeks, months and years ahead,” she added.