An Ode To Too Good To Go
Image Source: Too Good to Go.
By Rose Joyce
The New York culinary aesthetic is one that is notorious for its glamor, riddled with over-priced groceries and unaffordable restaurants. However, for most of the city’s residents, the reality of their lifestyles is far from these misconceived images of luxury and vanity, especially for college students across Manhattan. Factors like inflation and rising rents have made balancing budgets substantially more difficult, in a city that was already notorious for its cost, and consequently affording the most basic of necessities like grocery shopping has become a profound challenge. That’s not even mentioning the cost of eating out, which nowadays is no longer a financially viable option for many students. Manhattan has an average rent of $3,998, which when combined with rising costs on food—with the price of groceries is up 12.4 percent in the past year, and the price of food at restaurants is up 8.6 percent—leaves citizens with little left over to spend on other necessities like transportation, clothing, and utilities.
It goes without saying that New York’s notoriously high cost of living puts profound pressure on its residents. It also goes without saying that college students generally don’t have a lot of money, especially not to spend on things like rising costs of groceries—the ramen noodle stereotype didn’t appear out of thin air. Furthermore, many college campuses in Manhattan are located in expensive neighborhoods like Greenwich Village or Morningside Heights, making it difficult for locals to find affordable venues for dining and grocery shopping. Universities understand these issues as well as anyone else, with New York University having its own “how to budget” page, the Columbia Spectator—the Ivy League institution’s student newspaper—having published tips for students to save in New York, and The New School providing resources for student discounts around the city.
And yet, despite all these tips, life in New York is still prohibitively expensive for many, especially with the well-reported rising costs throughout recent times. Just this past June, food prices in the city increased by 9.1 percent. New Yorkers from all walks of life have felt this burden, including restaurant owners themselves. Labor shortages, the supply chain crisis, inflation and the climate crisis have decreased profits, and caused them to change their menus as ingredients become too expensive or difficult to find. On the other side of the coin, rising prices disincentivize consumers to spend on eating out, which has serious adverse effects on restaurant owners too. Patrick Dunne, a medical student, told the New York Times that “You almost don’t want to get too mad because you know the restaurant owners are also paying a hefty price. So you feel empathy, but you’re upset about the price increases.”
Of course, given that New Yorkers are notorious for their ingenuity, residents have recently found new and creative avenues towards alleviating these food-induced financial burdens. Recently, New Yorkers have been finding themselves uttering phrases like “Be right back, I’ve got to pick up my Too Good To Go” or “I have two hours until my Too Good To Go pickup, want to walk with me?” more and more often. Infamous hot girl walks have been replaced by Too Good To Go walks, and dinner composed of toast, half a cut of apple, a hunk of peanut butter, a handful of olives and the occasional complimentary pickle have been given a $3.99 substitute of hummus, falafel, pickled red onions, a side salad and a selection of flavorful, colorful sauces.
But what exactly is Too Good to Go? Founded in Denmark in 2016, Too Good To Go is a food takeout app that provides restaurants with a pathway to sell their surplus food to users at a discounted price. In the past year Too Good To Go has accelerated in popularity, stepping in to answer the prayers of budgeting New Yorkers and students interested in experiencing the tastes of the city without suffering an immeasurable burden to their wallet. With its user and business friendly platform, Too Good To Go is a prime way to lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, combating food waste whilst also avoiding the financial and environmental costs of transporting leftovers to food banks. The app itself has an interface similar to that of the typical food delivery app that we’ve all grown accustomed to, and a business partnership form is easily available on the home screen of its website. Currently, the company has partnered with restaurants around the world to sell their leftovers, which would otherwise go to waste, at a discounted price. With restaurants in the U.S. producing an estimated 22 to 33 billion pounds of food waste per year, Too Good To Go doesn’t just help consumers, but saves costs for the restaurant industry, which in the U.S. loses $162 billion annually from food waste.
Too Good To Go’s initial mission did not have food affordability in mind, but rather was focused instead on minimizing food waste, a disastrous practice which only further exacerbates the climate crisis. In the U.S. alone, roughly half of food waste loss comes from food processing, restaurants and households. Reducing food waste loss in these three categories alone, could reduce U.S. GHG emissions by 8 percent.
Image Source: US Environmental Protections Agency
The app’s sustainable business model is working. With 67.3 million users and partnerships with 174,888 businesses around the world, Too Good To Go has taken the food waste by storm. Success is found in similar companies like Flashfood in the U.S, Treatsure in Singapore, Phenix in Hong Kong, and Tabete in Japan that also partner with the restaurant industry to combat food waste, and deliver low cost food to consumers. Susan Teaford, an avid user of Flashfood, explained to the Washington Post that not only did the app's mission align with her values, but has also saved her $240 on groceries. The success of these apps tell the truth about these apps’ unintended benefits, as consumers using the product consistently rave about low costs even more so than their positive impact on the environment.
Through a holistic approach to combating the climate crisis and food waste, apps like Too Good To Go are expanding consumption options for consumers, delivering affordability in a time where costs are rising globally. These climate-retrofitted solutions are becoming the norm in the 21st-century, as businesses that combat climate change whilst simultaneously benefiting consumers and producers are increasingly being rewarded with great economic success.
Rose Joyce is a sophomore at New York University from Massachusetts, studying economics and public policy. She is passionate about coffee, and the very broad topic of how governments legislate infrastructure. In her free time you can find her at Le Fournil (home of arguably the best pastries and coffee in all of Manhattan).
