The app creates a required store visit

Trade publications reported on 4 November that Morrisons and Too Good To Go had expanded their partnership with Chilled Surprise Bags containing dairy, deli, meat and seafood. Retail Times, Retail Gazette and Grocery Gazette give a £12 full value, a price of about £6 and availability at 25 London stores. The Grocer reports different figures — about £4 and 495 stores — so exact price and reach still need confirmation from a primary launch source. [1 · Retail Times · Chilled Surprise Bags launch and reported metrics, 4 November 2026] [2 · Retail Gazette · launch and app mechanics corroboration] [3 · Grocery Gazette · independent trade account of the expansion] [7 · The Grocer · conflicting price and rollout figures]

The journey starts in the Too Good To Go app: shoppers find Morrisons, reserve and pay for a bag, then collect it in an allotted slot. The partnership dates to 2019; Retail Times says all Surprise Bag types are available across 495 supermarkets and selected Morrisons Daily stores. Chilled products broaden the range without removing uncertainty about the contents before collection. [1 · Retail Times · Chilled Surprise Bags launch and reported metrics, 4 November 2026] [4 · Morrisons · official Too Good To Go partnership page] [5 · Morrisons · official food-waste page] [6 · Too Good To Go · live Morrisons storefront]

The companies report four million meals saved, more than £32m of redistributed food value and over 10m kg of avoided CO2e. Morrisons also says almost half of collectors buy something else in store and that this basket spend reached £3m this year. It gives no customer count, average add-on basket, gross margin, fees, measurement period, control group or attribution rules. [1 · Retail Times · Chilled Surprise Bags launch and reported metrics, 4 November 2026] [3 · Grocery Gazette · independent trade account of the expansion] [5 · Morrisons · official food-waste page] [7 · The Grocer · conflicting price and rollout figures]

An “additional purchase” is not yet incremental revenue

Adding an item at collection demonstrates cross-selling, but not its causal effect. Some customers would have visited Morrisons without Too Good To Go, while others may shift an ordinary shop to collection time. The £3m is therefore service-attributed spend unless the retailer shows a counterfactual baseline using comparable customers or stores without the offer. [1 · Retail Times · Chilled Surprise Bags launch and reported metrics, 4 November 2026] [3 · Grocery Gazette · independent trade account of the expansion] [7 · The Grocer · conflicting price and rollout figures] [9 · Management Science · online reservation and store-purchase study] [10 · Production and Operations Management · 25,724 BOPS instances]

Incremental margin matters more than sales. It must account for the bag discount, platform fee, sorting and handover labour, chilled handling and any cannibalisation of full-price purchases. BOPS research has found cross-selling while also detecting channel shift; one study estimated effects from 25,724 instances using customer matching and difference-in-differences. [1 · Retail Times · Chilled Surprise Bags launch and reported metrics, 4 November 2026] [4 · Morrisons · official Too Good To Go partnership page] [8 · Management Science · Too Good To Go surprise-clearance model] [9 · Management Science · online reservation and store-purchase study] [10 · Production and Operations Management · 25,724 BOPS instances]

Chilled food can make the offer more useful, but it raises quality, timing and trust requirements for an unknown assortment. Two studies of surplus-food blind boxes linked continuance intentions with quality and perceived sustainability, while identifying food risk and taste anxiety as barriers. The new format needs actual repeat use, cancellations, refunds, complaints and evidence that customers consumed the contents. [1 · Retail Times · Chilled Surprise Bags launch and reported metrics, 4 November 2026] [2 · Retail Gazette · launch and app mechanics corroboration] [3 · Grocery Gazette · independent trade account of the expansion] [4 · Morrisons · official Too Good To Go partnership page] [5 · Morrisons · official food-waste page] [11 · BMC Psychology · two studies of opaque surplus-food boxes]

Expert commentary

The established fact is that the app brings a customer to a particular store in a particular time window. Morrisons can recover value from surplus, introduce an app user to the shop and earn an add-on basket. The customer gets a clear price benefit, although the contents remain unknown until collection. [1 · Retail Times · Chilled Surprise Bags launch and reported metrics, 4 November 2026] [2 · Retail Gazette · launch and app mechanics corroboration] [3 · Grocery Gazette · independent trade account of the expansion] [4 · Morrisons · official Too Good To Go partnership page]

Research on online orders collected in store explains why this journey can alter sales. One quasi-experiment found more store traffic and cross-selling alongside demand moving between channels. Another study of 16,202 customers found positive associations with later behaviour after applying matching and difference-in-differences. These findings explain a mechanism; they do not establish the Morrisons effect. [9 · Management Science · online reservation and store-purchase study] [10 · Production and Operations Management · 25,724 BOPS instances]

“Almost half make an additional purchase” describes behaviour after arrival, not growth relative to a world without the service. Even the £3m labelled incremental basket spend may include purchases by existing customers that would have happened on another day. A credible test needs comparable stores with different availability or a phased rollout, customer history and a common-trends check. [1 · Retail Times · Chilled Surprise Bags launch and reported metrics, 4 November 2026] [3 · Grocery Gazette · independent trade account of the expansion] [7 · The Grocer · conflicting price and rollout figures] [10 · Production and Operations Management · 25,724 BOPS instances]

The Management Science model of surprise clearance explains the appeal of opaque contents: a store retains flexibility when surplus becomes known late. It identifies conditions for higher profit and lower store waste, but also scenarios in which consumer or total waste rises. This is theory; four million meals saved does not reveal how much bag content was later discarded at home. [8 · Management Science · Too Good To Go surprise-clearance model]

Chilled products make the relationship more sensitive to execution. A discount may compensate for uncertainty, but poor quality, an unsuitable mix or an inconvenient collection window can damage trust. Research on surplus-food boxes links continued intention with quality and perceived sustainability, while identifying food risk and taste anxiety as barriers. [2 · Retail Gazette · launch and app mechanics corroboration] [4 · Morrisons · official Too Good To Go partnership page] [11 · BMC Psychology · two studies of opaque surplus-food boxes]

Useful measures over the next few months are incremental gross margin by store and customer, purchases above forecast, users new to Morrisons, 30- and 90-day repeat use, write-offs, cancellations, complaints and actual consumption. In the positive case, the service reduces waste and creates new demand. In the negative case, it only reallocates existing shopping and shifts some waste into homes. [1 · Retail Times · Chilled Surprise Bags launch and reported metrics, 4 November 2026] [2 · Retail Gazette · launch and app mechanics corroboration] [3 · Grocery Gazette · independent trade account of the expansion] [4 · Morrisons · official Too Good To Go partnership page] [5 · Morrisons · official food-waste page] [8 · Management Science · Too Good To Go surprise-clearance model] [9 · Management Science · online reservation and store-purchase study] [10 · Production and Operations Management · 25,724 BOPS instances] [11 · BMC Psychology · two studies of opaque surplus-food boxes]

Sources

  1. Retail Times · Chilled Surprise Bags launch and reported metrics, 4 November 2026 — Reports the launch, a price of about £6, a 25-store London trial, partnership scale and the claimed £3m in incremental basket spend. All performance figures come from the companies and no method is disclosed.
  2. Retail Gazette · launch and app mechanics corroboration — Corroborates the date, chilled categories, stated £12 value, price of about £6, 25 London stores and app reservation.
  3. Grocery Gazette · independent trade account of the expansion — Corroborates £12/about £6, 25 stores, the app-to-store path and the reported commercial figures; it provides no measurement method.
  4. Morrisons · official Too Good To Go partnership page — Describes the live journey: download the app, find a store, reserve and pay for a Surprise Bag, then collect it in an allotted slot.
  5. Morrisons · official food-waste page — Confirms the long-term goal to halve in-store food waste by 2030 and the use of Too Good To Go as a surplus-sales channel.
  6. Too Good To Go · live Morrisons storefront — Shows the live Morrisons offer in the app and explains that users buy nearby surplus bags. Its counters differ from the partnership-wide figure and are not treated as a total.
  7. The Grocer · conflicting price and rollout figures — Corroborates the launch and claimed £3m basket spend, but reports about £4 and 495 stores for chilled bags, conflicting with three other reports. This limits confidence in exact price and reach.
  8. Management Science · Too Good To Go surprise-clearance model — A theoretical model compares surprise clearance with transparent clearance and no clearance: profit and store-waste benefits are possible, but consumer or total waste can rise under some conditions. It does not measure Morrisons.
  9. Management Science · online reservation and store-purchase study — A quasi-experimental BOPS study finds both cross-selling and channel-shift effects and warns against conclusions from single-channel data. It did not study Morrisons.
  10. Production and Operations Management · 25,724 BOPS instances — A study of 25,724 BOPS instances among 16,202 customers used propensity-score matching and difference-in-differences; effects varied with store characteristics. They cannot be transferred to Morrisons without a test.
  11. BMC Psychology · two studies of opaque surplus-food boxes — The study links purchase and continuance intentions to quality, sustainability and perceived risks; it measured intentions, not Morrisons revenue.
  12. Morrisons · official company information — The official page describes Morrisons as one of the UK’s largest supermarket chains.
  13. Too Good To Go · official company and business-model information — The official page describes the company, app, Surprise Bags, footprint and business model; global metrics are company-reported.