Remember the days of blinking in-store coupon dispensers and thick, mailbox-clogging booklets full of grocery discounts? Depending on where you live, that might still be your weekly reality.
But those days are fading fast, as rising print costs and falling newspaper circulations push glossy inserts into history. Yet the need to save on food costs is stronger than ever — especially since strategic couponing can still slash roughly 17% off the average grocery run.
That’s where the grocery store surprise bags come in.
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If you’re familiar with the mystery liquidation bundles at flea markets or online auctions, you might already know how it works: stores sell a grab bag of goods, and you reap the discounts.
Now, traditional grocery stores are getting in on the action — cutting retail prices by 50% to 75% on leftover inventory through smartphone apps.
But there’s a catch: What you save in cash, you pay for in scarcity, variety, and relative value. To see if the tradeoffs are worth it, I bought a grocery store surprise bag on a popular app so you don’t have to navigate these “surprise taxes” alone. Here’s what I found.
This article is not a sponsorship or an endorsement of any particular product. Information is provided for educational purposes only.
What are grocery store surprise bags?
At their core, grocery surprise bags are mystery bundles of surplus produce, baked goods, and canned or boxed items sold at steep discounts. The premise is simple. You buy leftover inventory to avoid paying premium prices, and the stores successfully curb their food waste.
Here’s how the process works:
- Download the app. You install a surplus food app on your smartphone.
- Find nearby stores. You enter your location to view nearby participating grocery stores, bakeries, and markets. I was surprised (pun intended) to find major national chains like Whole Foods and The Fresh Market alongside local independent shops.
- Reserve and pay. When you spot an available surprise bag in your area, you reserve and pay for it directly through the app.
- Pick up. Each store has a dedicated pickup window. You simply arrive during that timeframe, show the clerk your digital receipt, and claim your bag.
For my experiment, I chose Too Good To Go, the app that popularized the term “Surprise Bag” for grocery mystery bundles and has over 120 million registered users worldwide. The app’s website also states that its bag prices are “roughly a third of the original price,” which I was eager to test firsthand.
My experience buying a grocery store surprise bag
The outside of my “Surprise Bag” purchased via the Too Good To Go app from The Fresh Market.
(Image credit: Kate Schubel, Senior Tax Writer at Kiplinger)
With traditional coupons, you know exactly what you’re buying. With a surprise bag, you surrender all control over the contents, condition, and variety of the food.
So when I purchased a surprise grocery bag for the first time, I was somewhat skeptical about whether it would be truly “worth it.”
Would I get a random collection of unusable items? Would the food be stale, expired, or overvalued by the app?
To find out, I purchased a “Bakery Surprise Bag” from The Fresh Market (one of two major grocers in the area on the Too Good To Go app). The bag promised $30 worth of food for just $10 (plus sales tax).
Then I went for pickup. I arrived during the designated 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. pickup period and showed my order to the store manager, who verified my bag type and retrieved my haul from the back.
After that, I managed a quick Q&A to see how the system worked on their end. This is roughly how the conversation went:
Me: When are the bags put together?
Store manager: Every morning. They sell out fast, usually between 7 am and 8 am (I had purchased my bag at 8:30 am that morning).
Me: How much are they worth?
Store manager: They’re worth a lot. I think it’s $35.
Did you catch that? The bag was supposed to be worth $30, not $35. Apparently, I was already receiving a more valuable bag than anticipated, which probably explains why the store had a 4.8-star rating (out of 5) on the app.
But, to my disappointment, the store manager couldn’t tell me exactly when the items were baked. For that, I needed to inspect the items thoroughly (oh, darn…taste test time).
Here’s what I got
The contents of my bag included two loaves of bread, a set of dinner rolls, and four muffins.
(Image credit: Kate Schubel, Senior Tax Writer at Kiplinger)
List of what I received (from left to right):
- Peach Creme Challah
- Rustic Italian Bread
- Sweet Hawaiian Dinner Rolls (12-count)
- Blueberry Muffins (4-count)
A quick inspection at home revealed that everything was stamped with that exact day’s sell-by date.
Fortunately, because baked goods don’t spoil immediately, this still gave my family a comfortable two- to five-day window to enjoy the breads and pastries. Nothing was stale, and everyone agreed the selection was delicious — especially the blueberry muffins (seriously, they were incredibly moist).
In the end, the items tasted nice (and we could eat them comfortably before they expired), but questions about the value remained. What was the true worth of all these items?
Are they surprise bags worth it? The value of what you get
To verify the app’s claims of $10 for $30 (or the manager’s $35), I tallied up the standard retail pricing of the items I received according to their printed labels.
|
Retail Price |
Grocery Item |
|
$8.99 |
Sweet Hawaiian Dinner Rolls |
|
$11.99 |
Peach Creme Challah |
|
$6.99 |
Blueberry Muffins (4-count) |
|
$6.99 |
Rustic Italian Bread |
|
$34.96 |
Total Estimated Value (sans tax) |
|
$10.00 |
What I Paid (sans tax) |
|
$24.96 |
Total Savings |
The verdict? The value is absolutely there. For a family of four, this bundle was perfect for quick breakfasts, easy dinner sides, and fun snacks in between meals. I also think a bag like this would work well for larger families, weekend brunches, or busy parents looking to feed their kids after school.
And because baked goods freeze well, slicing and individually packing these items for a solo saver or seniors on a budget can stretch this $10 mystery bag into weeks of high-quality baked goods. Therefore, from a strict dollar-value standpoint, the deal is bound to save shoppers money.
Why I won’t do it again: The ‘surprise tax’
Even though I loved the quality and value of my haul, first-time users should be aware of a few hidden logistical “taxes” — what I call the “surprise tax” of a grocery surprise bag.
These are the factors that sap time and energy, ultimately souring the deal for some shoppers (including me).
1. The scarcity tax
Grocery bundles sell out fast — like really fast. At least, that’s how it went on the app that I used. If you don’t happen to be looking at your phone the exact time a bag is “dropped,” you might find nothing but “sold out” banners when you finally click in. This happened to me multiple times the first night I tried to snag a bag. Shoppers on Reddit have also expressed this deep frustration over missing out on bags, leading some to give up entirely.
2. The variety tax
Because you can’t choose the inventory, you risk getting repetitive items. I only bought one bag, but other shoppers have reported receiving the same items multiple times in a row or even products past their expiration date. The app can also be discouraging if you have a food allergy, since few places on the app in my area offered allergy-friendly “Surprise Bags.”
3. The relative value tax
The “savings” may be lower than your local grocer’s prices. For example, if you’re used to buying your blueberry muffins from Walmart, a 4-count might cost around $4.98. That’s about $2 cheaper than the retail price of the muffins I received, and I didn’t get to choose my flavor or check the expiration date. Plus, some grocery app users have reported receiving bags filled with items that were already marked down on clearance shelves, making the actual “retail value” lower than advertised.
The bottom line
Would I get it again? No.
Although grocery surplus apps are wildly popular, the industry is still growing. Even Too Good to Go, regarded as the market leader, doesn’t quite have the coverage it needs yet in many suburban and rural areas.
For example, my closest participating grocery store chain was about a 25-minute drive away (mind you, there were several participating restaurants, however). Spending almost an hour by car burned gas and time, which quickly ate away at the $25 savings margin on my groceries. Combined with the “surprise tax,” that tradeoff just isn’t worth it to me at this time.
However, if you live in an area with closer shops and find it easier to snag a grocery surprise bag, there are definite savings.
After all, average weekly savings through couponing reaps $5 to $10 (per the Credit Union report), but if you buy multiple surprise bags, you could save $25 to $75 per week.
Either way, the next time you see a shopper flash their phone at a grocery counter and walk away with a bag, know that they aren’t just picking up takeout. They could be buying a basket full of groceries very similar to your own — but at a mere fraction of the price.
