• anon6789
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    11 months ago

    I don’t know if this is the type of thing you were asking, but it’s one I’ve been using about once a week lately.

    I was listening to How I Built This with Guy Raz, and he had on a lady that wanted to eliminate food waste. She started the app Too Good To Go.

    Partner businesses will pack up about $15 of food at the end of the shift, and instead of tossing it, they put it in a to go box for you for $5.

    Tonight we had jerk chicken and sides from a Caribbean place, another time we got 4 big pizza slices overloaded with toppings, and our favorite is the Manhattan Bagels gives us 15-17 bagels. We’ve also tried a vegan bakery, which is way too expensive for us, but for my girlfriend’s nephew with a severe egg allergy was a great surprise.

    These are all places we wouldn’t normally go, but they’ve all been really tasty, helped eliminate some waste, and let us try some new restaurants for a fiver. We’re kinda in the country, so there aren’t too many options, but I looked in the nearby city and there are a lot, and the app started in Europe, so you non-US people don’t have to miss out.

    So maybe not the super cheap lentil curry recipe I have, but this was an intriguing things I recently learned about and have been looking to share awareness about.

    Even if you don’t have much cash, it still feels nice to be able to get restaurant food sometimes too, and this is a cheap and mutually beneficial way to do that.

    • @Bakachu
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      11 months ago

      I remember back in the day a few food court places did this. They’d preload a to-go container with a ton of food and mark it for $5 about 30 minutes before the mall closed. I haven’t seen a food court do this since 2008 though.

      • anon6789
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        511 months ago

        This sounds pretty much exactly like that. It’s about the only downside, as it’s first come (to reserve a box in the app), first served, and you get a half hour pickup window.

        The way they sell it to places is they make it so it’s no more work than just tossing it would be, but you get a sale.

    • @RozhkiNozhki
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      811 months ago

      We found it too and it’s awesome. A huge bag of tamales and pastries from our local Mexican bakery, $6.

      • anon6789
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        511 months ago

        Exactly! I wish I had tamales near me!

        Though I do make a mean tamale pie, and that’s a pretty good cheap way to stretch out leftover protein when it isn’t enough left to feed the both of us.

        Not healthy, but damn good for leftovers! 😁

    • @9715698
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      311 months ago

      This is a great tip. We this in Berlin. It’s great to just walk to a random area in the evening, open the app up and see what’s available for pickup in the area.

      • anon6789
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        311 months ago

        That was another thing that had gotten my interest about it. I recently started a new job that was in an area I wasn’t familiar with, so I’ve gotten to get a sampling of the restaurants there for next to nothing.