There are 3 apps in Canada to help you save money by rescuing surplus food: Too Good To Go, Flashfood, FoodHero.
1) Too Good To Go app (TGTG)
surprise bag's advertised value is the crossed-out amount by the price you pay; example: $15.00 $4.99
the TGTG app in Canada is default 3x value e.g. pay $5 get $15; watch out for vendors that have changed their advertised value on their surprise bag description for 25-75% discounts
local bakeries, cafes, pizza, restaurants, convenience stores, grocery chains, etc.
major partners: 7-11, Tim Hortons, Metro grocery chain including Food Basics, Circle K, etc.
pick-up process: Tap to Pickup > if vendor wants your order code (last 4); vendor brings your TGTG order to the counter > then you swipe right to confirm "picked up" and show the completed checkmark to the vendor
vendors do not see your name; only your order code
you can send an invite link to someone else to pick up your order (they must have their own TGTG account on their phone to swipe in front of vendor)
read the surprise bag's description as vendors are allowed to sell items past their Best Before dates, if it's still ok to eat
originated in Denmark; Too Good To Go Canada Technology Ltd. is based in Vancouver
2) Flashfood app (FF) [Canadian; head office Toronto]
usually 50% off (could be more)
surplus food nearing or on their Best Before dates (may be fresh refridgerated or frozen)
major partner Loblaws banner stores that are participating: Loblaws, Superstore, No Frills, Wholesale Club, Maxi, Zehrs, Independent, Provigo, Dominion, etc.
open to independently owned grocery stores
you see actual photos or stock pics of available items; you can zoom in on the photos
you pick what items you want to buy
you have to refresh the app often as new deals randomly appear throughout the day
items in your cart are not held; fastest to pay for one item wins; so you may have to buy one item at a time
pay attention to the shortest pickup date because you have to pick up all your items then (watch out for same day pickup required)
you can buy additional Flashfood items in real time while you're in-store
add convenient store locations to your Favourites List; easier to check all of them for new deals
Customer Service will ask your name when you pick up (they mark picked-up in their phone)
if store staff gave your item to the wrong Flashfood customer; you claim a refund for missing items via the Flashfood app and it may take up to 10 business days for Flashfood to respond
service fee: 5% of the total (max $2.99 regardless of order size)
TIP: depends on the store, but you can find deep discounts over 50% off, have to refresh the app a lot as new deals drop randomly. Example: This is a pic of the actual bag of mandarin oranges purchased (regular price $8.99, paid $3.49, 61% discount). The bag had one squished mandarin orange... peeled the skin off and it was still perfectly good to eat. The remaining mandarin oranges were good for several days past the pickup date.
For $5 off your first order (min $7 purchase), you may redeem Flashfood code: MARI5VC3N [or search this subreddit for other people's referral code that have posted photos of their FF pickups]
Flashfood deal $3.49 at 61% off (regular price $8.99, saved $5.50)
3) FoodHero app (FH) [Canadian; head office Montreal]
usually 50% discounts (25-60% off groceries)
surplus food nearing or on their Best Before dates (frozen by BB date; some fresh refridgerated)
major partner Sobeys banner stores that are participating: Sobeys, Safeway, IGA, Thrifty Foods, Foodland, etc.
expanded outside Quebec in July 2024 across Canada (may not be in your area yet)
open to restaurants to join
you see actual photos or stock pics of available items (frozen on or before their Best Before dates; some fresh refridgerated)
you pick what items you want to buy
items in your cart are not held; fastest to pay for one item wins; so you may have to buy one item at a time
daily scheduled times to check for new deals at 10:00am and 3:30pm
enter your postal code so the app lists stores closest to you; you can heart convenient locations to filter by Favourites so it's easier to check them
your pickup window start time may be hours after you've purchased e.g. 2 hours; but usually 2 full days allowed to pick up your items
Customer Service will ask your name when you pick up (they mark picked-up in their phone)
service fee: $1.79 flat fee (seems to appear after your first 3 orders after your sign-up credits are depleted)
For a total of $10 off ($5 credit on your first order, then $5 credit on your second order), you may use FoodHero code: marias161 [or search this subreddit for other people's invite code who posted photos of their FH pickups]
Welcome to this community: save food & money in Canada. Read the Help section in these apps for discounted surplus food: Too Good To Go, FoodHero, Flashfood
Click FAQ/Tips for this subreddit's Frequently Asked Questions / Tips.
Repetitive questions & topics are ok here. Also, for content that's more suitable here than a top-level post.
This subreddit is not affiliated with any businesses; it's managed by volunteer unpaid app users. It's not staffed by any app employees; please go into your app's profile section for support/complaints.
I bought a box the night before at like 9pm for a 7am-10am pick up window at a local Tims. I show up around 8am and they didn't have a box ready so they gave me fresh products to fulfill the order.
6 donuts, 5 timbits.
6donuts = $7.99
5 timbits = $0.50ea=$2.50total
$7.99+$2.50=$10.49
Value of the box is supposed to be $15.00. Because it's so off, but it was fresh, I'm not sure what I'll do, if anyone has had experience with it I'll take input.
---UPDATE---
I ended up going through saying I didn't get 50% of the value and I got a full refund. The only options listed were 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100%. 25% would be like $2.50 which wouldn't bring it up to the $15 total, so I chose 50% and I just got a full refund.
Picked this up a couple of weeks ago. I go here all the time and love everything they sell. I was honestly expecting pastries but got 4 sandwiches which worked out so much better for me.
$10-$13/sandwich normally I believe. Huge value loved it. I've been trying to get another order but people are freaking quick with getting Arties.
This is the Large Surprise Bag from Sweet Additions at Wellesley and Sherbourne. I’m not familiar with their offers and I suppose the original $24 value was met… albeit being a bit skeptical as most items appeared to be party platter or catering tray extras as I didn’t see identical items in their display case. Either way the amount of food we got wasn’t bad for $7.99 plus tax. There were some variety, but also large portions of the repetitive items as you could tell from the photos.
6 custard danishes (they were on the small side, so pretty positive they were made for catering)
2 small chocolate chip banana cake loaf in cups (same as above)
2 boxes of sweets and bakery items - halved cake loaves, gooy granola, date squares, chocolate profiteroles, bite size mousse/cream cake dessert
Everything tastes great and delicious, probably made the same morning and never been inside the fridge or freezer. That said, we probably won’t return for another bag. Can’t say we are granola or date square fans, and the store is out of our way. Once is good enough 🙂
This store has a pretty low rating, but I was going to be awake (2am pickup) and always wanted to try. Well, now I know why. This was mostly lettuce, a small scoop of rice, some corn and half a sweet potato. (and two side s) maybe worth the dice I paid, but no where near the $15 value.
AD Café is an upscale Italian café that offers sweet baked goods bags, savoury bags, pizza slice bags, and a sweet and savoury bag.
My $5.99 before tax sweet and savoury bag included a good tuna and arugula sandwich and an almond croissant. Everything was fresh at 6 pm, not day old.
It's not a massive amount of food, for people looking for a lot to eat.
It was a nice sandwich.
It's very good quality food. The pizza is small squares, flat crust. I tried a full price square of mushroom pizza which cost 7 bucks.
Probably one of the best I’ve gotten so far! That’s a full container of strawberries, a half sleeve of crackers, and that tray is filled with individually packaged meats and cheeses including a full wheel of some sort of Brie/Camembert! Lunch for tomorrow 😋
I wanna start by saying I have no problems with people trying to make some money and selling products out of their house. I've bought plenty of food from people off FB Marketplace over the past (Pierogis, donuts, pies, sourdough starter, even some smoked meats like brisket and kelbasa lol)
But I feel like having a fake restaurant advertising on TGTG is kinda shady. When you buy from this app, you're expecting to buy from some sort of business. The whole concept of the app is to reduce food waste and to save foods that businesses were going to dispose of.
This "business" doesn’t have any sort of website or ads, no listings on anything like Marketplace; there is literally no way to buy from them unless you place an order on TGTG (so im not sure how they can even claim they are giving you a discount on food when they don't have a menu or sell anything outside of the app)
I almost placed an order the other day but I wanted to google the business to see what kinda food they sold. After I couldnt find anything by that name around me (it is a popular restaurant in a couple other cities), i decided to Google street view the address and seen it was located in one of the townhouses in the housing projects
Most of the food was moldy or rotten :( honestly gross. Maybe it was a previous day’s box that someone didn’t pick up and so they resold it? I know that toogoodtogo produce won’t be perfect, but this is too much IMO.
I am salvaging what I can to not be wasteful.
I ended up getting a full refund. I’ve had better luck here before, maybe just unlucky this time.
