🤑🥗 Life hack: Surprise groceries?!

🐈 This might be your cat’s claim to fame. Show your kitty off to the world at the first-ever Lower Allston Cat Stroll on Sept. 19 (basically Porchfest, but for cats). Register here!

👀 What’s on tap today:

Up first…

Takeout in this economy?! How ‘bout a bag of Whole Foods leftovers for $9.99? 

That’s exactly the kind of deal you’ll find on Too Good To Go, an app where users can buy surprise bags of surplus food from restaurants and markets at a *steep* discount. 

But is it just another foodie Hunger Games? And are they actually any good? Here’s what we learned:

💪 Whole Foods and Caffè Nero dominate the game. These two chains take up ~half of the listings in the Boston area, according to BagRescue, a third-party tool that tracks listings and helps users reserve TGTG bags. 

🍽️ Most listings cluster around the central parts of the city. Think: Back Bay, Fenway, Beacon Hill, and Downtown. Cambridge also has a good number of bags from places like Luxor Cafe and Jamie’s Ice Cream, but there are only a handful of options in the outer Boston neighborhoods like Dorchester, Roslindale, and Eastie. 

💨 Popular bags can sell out FAST. Translation: You might never see an available bag from local faves like Yafa, Bakey, Iggy’s Bread, or Ba Le unless you’re on top of your notifications and have quick hands. Kelly’s pro tip for Bakey: You’ll have better luck snagging a bag at its Faneuil Hall location. 

🐟 Some of the highest bags in demand? Meat and seafood from Whole Foods. And that’s across the board based on BagRescue users, according to Arash Vakil, BagRescue’s developer. But TBH, we’ve seen people on our FYP score big in their Whole Foods hauls across alllll bag types, from baked goods to produce to prepared foods (hello, two rotisserie chickens?!).

🥐 Most bags are for baked goods and groceries. Bakery items top the list around Boston, making up 30% of listings (there are tons of bread bags from places like Al’s Cafe and Bagel Guild). Fun fact: Boston has more baked and prepared items, while Cambridge actually has more grocery bags since there are more supermarket listings (i.e. Harvard Market).

🤑 You can save a real good chunk o’ change. In fact, Kelly’s biggest savings so far was actually at Bakey. She bought a bag for ~$6 and got a sesame bagel, an everything bagel, an almond babka, a date-walnut scone, AND a whole container of harissa whipped feta — a ~$25 value. 

⏰ Note: Pickup times can be wonky. Be prepared to see late afternoon times (especially for cafes) and nighttime pickup windows for restaurants between 7 and 10 p.m. Sooo, not exactly a last-minute lunch solution …

🍋 Ask yourself: Is the juice worth the squeeze? You’ll always be saving a buck, but we’d recommend booking it if it’s actually convenient to grab it. Is your fridge empty? Is the spot easy to get to? But we’ll def be filing this away for move-out season …

🤔 Have more Qs? See more data here.

🍁 Leaf peepers, start praying for rain!!! Globe meteorologist Ken Mahan said we actually might have some vibrant foliage this fall … IF we get solid showers every week or so this month. Luckily, we just had two big storms (which also helped our drought), and with a Super El Niño a-brewin’, we should expect some more wet weather in our future. Psst! Peak colors should enter the chat around mid-October, according to this Old Farmer’s Almanac map.

📚 Chat, are these AI schools real? Yes, they are. Enter: Alpha, an AI-driven private education company that’s building 27 schools (!) across the country this year — two of which are in JP and Beacon Hill. Here’s how it works: Students spend only *two hours* on their core classes taught by AI tutors in 1:1 seshes, then work on life skills like public speaking and mental grit (see: biking across the Golden Gate Bridge) for the rest of the day. The kicker: It costs ~$60,000 a year … 

🏮 The Franklin Park Zoo is getting LIT. Literally. Boston Lights is BACK, baby. In case you’re new here, the zoo hosts massive immersive lantern displays every year, and they’re *magical* (imagine: strolling through the ~glowing~ depths of the ocean and the Grand Canyon). This year will feature lanterns with South African nature inspo, like penguins and great white sharks. It'll be up and running Thursdays through Mondays till the end of September; then you can see them *every* night from Oct. 1 to Nov. 8. Get tickets here!

👚 Coming soon: Covet in Harvard Square!!! Cambridge is *finally* getting its first Covet, opening up shop sometime this winter TBD. ICYMI, Covet was named in Boston mag’s 2026 Best of Boston for THE top place to thrift everyday essentials. In the meantime, don’t forget to bookmark Aug. 26 for their monthly $5 bin sale, where you can snag the steals of the century (we’ll never shut up about Emily’s $250 Elliatt dress).

Hilary Duff is officially a Masshole. At least, we’re claiming her as one after she publicly overcame her fear of clam chowder at her Mansfield concert over the weekend. (Wild sentence, we know.) 

ICYMI, Hilary has been doing a silly bit on her “Lucky Me Tour” where she opens a mini fridge with surprise local foods and bevs (ex: Dirty DC in Utah, hot chicken in Nashville). This time, it was our two fave Mass. staples: clam chowder and Dunkin’ munchkins. 

“I just feel like clams are little boogers or something,” she said, squirming on stage (not entirely false tbh). But she slurped a spoonful and actually LOVED the soup itself and the potatoes, calling it “wicked good.” Though she still couldn’t really get past the clams … 

And for dessert, she tossed a munchkin into the air and caught it in her mouth with joy.

— Written by Kelly Chan and Emily Schario

💭 Thanks for reading! One might say, it was what dreams were made of …

🏋️ The results are in: 37% of B-Siders spend under $50/month on their gym membership. But one reader shared a hack: “I used to work at Equinox, and the job came with a free membership. The job sucked, but the perks were amazing!” Can you hook us up with that referral rate??

💃 Keep up with us @BostonBSide on IG, TikTok, and X. Send comments and suggestions to [email protected] and [email protected].