Blakemore Retail extends Too Good To Go partnership

The retailer first partnered with the food-waste-fighting platform in January 2020, when it began a trial with 15 stores. The business registered a further 43 stores on the platform in June, and on 22 February this week it completed its rollout.

The Too Good To Go app launched in the UK in 2016 to help tackle food wasted by saving fresh and short-dated meals and products thrown away by restaurants and retailers.

Towards the end of each day, Spar stores make up ‘Magic Bags’ of surplus fresh food, which Too Good To Go’s app users can then purchase. Each ‘Magic Bag’ contains food worth a minimum of £10 at full retail price, but is sold to customers for £3.09.

The bags can include groceries, fruit, vegetables, baked goods, sandwiches, cakes, meats, pizzas, ready meals and sweet treats.

After placing an order for a ‘Magic Bag’ and paying for it on the app, customers collect their bag at the allocated time from their chosen Spar store.

Blakemore Retail managing director, Matt Teague, said: “The app enables customers to get some fantastic deals at the same time as encouraging them to try new products that they might not usually buy as part of their regular shop.

“The bags have proved very popular with shoppers, and since registering our first stores on the app we have saved an incredible 17,400 bags of food from going to waste.

“This practice of reducing food waste has now become the normal way of working across our retail estate, and we’re also seeing retailers from AF Blakemore’s independent Spar estate increasingly eager to sign up to the app too.”