Last week, Aldi announced that it would be rolling out a partnership with the food-waste-fighting app Too Good To Go in all 990 of their stores. It followed a successful trial that would help reduce the amount of food that ends up in the bin each day, while offering customers the opportunity to get some heavily reduced food items as the cost of living crisis continues.
Having had some success in the past with supermarkets - like Morrisons - on the free-to-download app, I thought I would try and get my hands on one of the surplus food parcels at Aldi to see exactly what you get for your money.
To get a Magic Bag, shoppers can simply download the free Too Good To Go app and search for their nearby Aldi store, before reserving a bag to collect from the store at an allotted time.
READ MORE: Acne-sufferers ‘obsessed’ with ‘game changer’ toner that transforms skin and smells ‘amazing’
The retailer is selling their ‘magic bags’ for £3.30, with the promise of approximately £10 worth of food inside. At my local store, it says you could rescue ‘a selection of grocery items like fruit, vegetables, fish, meat, dairy, cakes, pastries and snacks.’
All of the products are usually approaching their sell-by or use-by dates, but you’ll snag them for around a third of the RRP.
The contents of a magic bag are always a surprise - which is all part of the ‘fun’ of the app. It is a bit of a lottery, so perhaps not ideal for those on a very strict budget - but it certainly can help stretch a pay packet for a day or two, sometimes.
The first time I tried to reserve an Aldi Too Good To Go bag, I was far too slow. The app now recommends - at least at my local - to check between 8pm and 9pm on weekdays to try and get one.
The following day, I was much more prepared, setting an alarm for 8pm as a reminder to myself. It seems drastic, but once I’d reserved my bag for £3.30, I went back to check how many bags were left, only to see that by 8.04pm, they’d all sold out, so it’s safe to say that they’re already extremely popular.
The Aldi that I visited had a very limited window in which to collect the food, which was between 9.30 and 9.45pm the same day - only an hour and a half after reserving the bag, but thankfully my partner agreed to a late-night trip to the supermarket to browse the middle aisle delights and to pick up the surplus food.
At exactly 9.30pm, a member of staff rolled out a pallet of cardboard boxes - the kind you might find bread or apples delivered in. There were about a dozen, give or take, so it’s quite impressive that they sold out in less than five minutes.
Customers gathered around the workers in excitement, some trying to have a peek in the boxes before being handed one from a member of staff. The team got into a rhythm of ‘how many?’ and ‘swipe your app to collect’, making way for the next savvy shopper.
After collecting my own box, I hauled it in the car and took it home to have a good look around at the contents and try to think what could be done with them to avoid them heading in the bin.
Starting off with the vegetables, I received around a kilogram of wonky parsnips and two punnets of cherry tomatoes. Together these were around £2.78, and could be roasted and blended together to make a nice hearty soup that would easily feed a family of four.
Also going out of date was a packet of Valentine's heart-shaped crumpets, which cost £1.09 for a pack of four, and were fine to eat the next day for breakfast, toasted with a little bit of butter.
Onto proteins and we hit the ‘jackpot’ with a small packet of 100 per cent British chicken breast mini fillets. This was around 400g of chicken breast worth £2.99, but it was included in the bag because it was going out of date that day. We popped it straight into the freezer, and will probably use it one night in the week to make a curry, adding in some veggies and maybe some of the tomatoes to bulk it out.
Another chicken-based item we received was two packets of the Ashfields Green Thai Chicken Mini Fillets, worth £2.29 each. My dad snacked on one packet of this in the evening as a little protein boost, sharing a little with the dogs as a treat, while the second pack was added to a salad the following day.
Finally, we also had a pot of The Deli Red Pepper Houmous, worth 85p. A couple of carrot and cucumber sticks were already in the fridge so we had ourselves a healthy snack, too.
Overall, I received around £13 worth of food for around a quarter of the price, and was able to get two hot family meals, breakfast for two, and a couple of snacks out of it, which is really good going.
The nationwide roll out of Too Good To Go at Aldi is expected to save a further 4,000 tonnes of food from going to waste annually and will form a key part of Aldi’s ongoing commitment to cutting food waste.
Liz Fox, Corporate Responsibility Director at Aldi UK, said: “Rolling out our partnership with Too Good To Go is another way of allowing us to cut down on food waste, while also offering customers the opportunity to pick up our food at even lower prices.
“With the rising cost of living impacting so many, Too Good To Go offers a simple and accessible way for consumers to save money and reduce waste.”
Sophie Trueman, Managing Director of Too Good To Go UK and Ireland, added: “We’re thrilled to be rolling out our partnership with Aldi nationally. Having already had fantastic feedback during a successful trial period, I know our Too Good To Go community is going to jump at the chance to save Magic Bags from their local Aldi and prevent even more good food from going to waste.”
READ NEXT:
- Boots shoppers ‘in love’ with ‘amazing’ £12 mascara that rivals Benefit and Mac
Marks and Spencer giving away £60 worth of products to anyone who spends £25
Selena Gomez's budget skincare saviour for removing mascara that's under £4
Beauty fans ‘need’ £10 Bobbi Brown primer dupe that rivals Aldi and Primark
Boots shoppers bagging £25 eye cream that ‘instantly erases’ dark circles for £9
