M&S has teamed up with the food waste app Too Good To Go to give shoppers a cheaper way into its bakery section, and fans of the sourdough and cookies are going to want to pay attention. The new surprise bags are packed with leftover bakery items and sold at a fraction of what the products would normally cost.
The scheme rolls out to more than 350 M&S Food stores, meaning a fair chunk of shoppers across the country should have a branch nearby offering the deal. Each bag costs £3.80 but contains at least £10.20 worth of bakery goods, which works out as a fairly substantial discount for anyone willing to take a chance on what’s inside.
How the Marks & Spencer Too Good to Go bags work
To grab one, shoppers need the Too Good To Go app and have to reserve a bag on the day they want to collect it. Only a limited number are made available each day, so once they’ve sold out, customers are left waiting until the next drop rather than being able to buy one on the spot in store.
Each bag holds between three and four bakery products, though exactly what ends up inside will vary depending on what’s left over at that particular store on that particular day. It’s a bit of a lucky dip, since specific items can’t be guaranteed, but the trade-off is a decent haul of baked goods for well under a fiver.
View this post on Instagram
The bags become available for collection from the in-store bakery an hour before closing time, running Monday through Saturday. That timing makes sense given the whole point is using up stock that would otherwise go to waste by the end of the day.
How many bags are on offer will change daily depending on surplus levels at each individual store, so a branch might have plenty of bags one day and none at all the next. Anyone keen to try it out is probably better off checking the app regularly rather than assuming a bag will always be there waiting.
Why M&S decided to launch the scheme now
The partnership ties into a wider pledge from M&S to cut its food waste in half by 2030, and the retailer has described the scheme as a practical way of turning that promise into something shoppers can actually take part in. Giving customers a way to buy surplus stock rather than seeing it thrown away lines up neatly with that target.
A representative from Too Good To Go added that tackling food waste doesn’t need to be complicated, and that partnerships like this show how easily businesses and shoppers can work together on the issue. For M&S, the appeal is a mix of good publicity and a real dent in the amount of stock it throws out each week.
View this post on Instagram
What else M&S is doing to cut down on waste
Beyond the surprise bags, M&S has also been working with the charity redistribution service Neighbourly, which passes surplus food on to good causes rather than letting it go to waste. So far, that partnership has already helped provide more than 130 meals to people who need them.
According to the retailer’s head of sustainability, feedback from trial stores running the surprise bags scheme has been strong, which suggests a wider rollout was always the plan once the early results came in. Between the app partnership and the charity redistribution work, M&S seems to be leaning on a few different routes to hit its 2030 target rather than relying on just one initiative.
What else has been added to the bakery lately
The surprise bags launch comes not long after M&S expanded its in-store bakery with a handful of new savoury items, including a fresh take on the sausage roll. Made with outdoor bred British pork and an all butter puff pastry, the retailer has been vocal about how confident it is in the new recipe compared to rivals on the high street.
Alongside the sausage roll, the bakery section has also picked up new bread sticks in cheddar and red onion, plus an olive version, alongside a nduja and ricotta swirl, a tomato and cheddar knot, and a spinach and feta roll. It all points to a bakery section that’s been quietly growing for a while, with the surprise bags now giving shoppers an even cheaper way into trying what’s on offer.
If you fancy giving the surprise bags a go, it’s worth downloading the app and checking your nearest participating store sooner rather than later, since availability changes daily and popular branches are likely to sell out fast once word gets around.
