Alu
Rescue delicious food from your favourite places — discounted surprise boxes near you
Active today
Stores where you can pick up a surprise box today.
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How it works
A surprise bag is a set of good food a place didn't manage to sell during the day. You buy it at a discount, and the food stays out of the bin.
Find a bag
Open the storefront and pick a place nearby: a bakery, café or store with a surprise bag available today.
Reserve it
Reserve a bag in a couple of taps — a six-digit pickup code appears in your reservation.
Pick it up
Come to the venue within the pickup window and give your six-digit code — the staff member enters it and hands over the bag.
It is a set of food from the venue's range that did not sell during the day: pastries, ready meals, groceries. The venue packs the bag from what is left by the end of the day and sells it for less than usual. The exact contents are not known in advance — that is the point of the surprise.
The seller is the venue that packed the bag: it is responsible for the food, its quality and the handover. Alu is an intermediary: we list venues' offers, take reservations and help out if something goes wrong.
Pick a venue on the storefront, check the pickup window and place a reservation. The bag is held for you, and a six-digit pickup code appears in the reservation itself. During the internal test reservations are free — there is no payment.
At the venue itself, within the pickup window shown in your reservation. Give the staff member your six-digit code — they enter it and hand over the bag. The code starts working five minutes before the window opens and is still accepted for two hours after it closes. Bags are not handed over before the window, and customers cannot close an order themselves.
A reservation can only be cancelled before the pickup window starts. Cancel early — more than two hours before the window, or within the first ten minutes after reserving — and you get a full refund; later, but still before the window starts, you get 50%. If you do not show up at all, that is also 50%. If the venue or the platform cancels, you get 100%. The exact deadlines are shown in the reservation. During the internal test there is no payment, so nothing is charged and nothing is refunded.
The contents are a surprise: the venue packs the bag from what is left by the end of the day, so the exact set is not known in advance. The platform does not publish allergen lists. If you have an allergy or dietary restrictions, check the contents with the staff member before you take the bag — the venue is responsible for what is inside.
For businesses
Run a café, bakery or store? Sell what is left at the end of the day instead of throwing it away.