I’ve seen one of these stores flounder and fail in a matter of a few years. I passed it by many times and I never saw anyone buy anything, or even enter there.
Although I felt sorry for the people running it, I would have never bought any of the sort of stuff they had on display anyway, whether packaged or not. Except for chocolate, and I really prefer mine bar-shaped.
I once bought something at one of these stores. Was in need for a specific kind of sugar for a recipe and they had it. Honestly it’s probably mostly failing on price point and convenience, because a) most of the products they sell are organic and high quality; so more expensive and b) you have to know what you want to buy beforehand so you can bring your own containers… Also the store was in an awkward location and not well advertised.
There’s a range of levels of this kind of shop, maybe not in every country or city, but in general. There was one in a city I lived in a few years ago, actually a national chain in that country, which had some fancier stuff but basically normal supermarket level stuff at slightly below normal supermarket prices, plus 5% off if you brought your containers. They had flours, dry beans, seeds, dry fruit etc, as well as like dish soap, oil, vinegar and so on. The first few times it was definitely a bit of a hassle to go there and think about what I needed to bring and buy, but once I made a routine of it it wasn’t harder than anything else really.
Yeah, we don’t make companies recycle/reuse the trash that they wrap around food and it’s dirt-cheap to produce more plastic trash, so somewhat unintuitively, it’s not really cheaper to buy food without packaging.
And at that point, you need to have customers that are willing to bring their own containers, just because they themselves want to reduce trash. Those kind of customers will also want organic, so now you’re more expensive. 🫠
Welp, if you’re willing to buy organic anyways, it’s kind of cool, because it’s a selection of food worth buying.
One time, the guy also let me try unroasted peanuts, which I probably would not have bought otherwise. Like, that’s also kind of cool, that they can have more exotic foods, because you can just try a nibble of it, or buy like a single portion, if it needs to be cooked/prepared…
I’ve seen one of these stores flounder and fail in a matter of a few years. I passed it by many times and I never saw anyone buy anything, or even enter there.
Although I felt sorry for the people running it, I would have never bought any of the sort of stuff they had on display anyway, whether packaged or not. Except for chocolate, and I really prefer mine bar-shaped.
What sort of stuff did they have? You wouldn’t buy flour and other bulk dry goods?
I once bought something at one of these stores. Was in need for a specific kind of sugar for a recipe and they had it. Honestly it’s probably mostly failing on price point and convenience, because a) most of the products they sell are organic and high quality; so more expensive and b) you have to know what you want to buy beforehand so you can bring your own containers… Also the store was in an awkward location and not well advertised.
There’s a range of levels of this kind of shop, maybe not in every country or city, but in general. There was one in a city I lived in a few years ago, actually a national chain in that country, which had some fancier stuff but basically normal supermarket level stuff at slightly below normal supermarket prices, plus 5% off if you brought your containers. They had flours, dry beans, seeds, dry fruit etc, as well as like dish soap, oil, vinegar and so on. The first few times it was definitely a bit of a hassle to go there and think about what I needed to bring and buy, but once I made a routine of it it wasn’t harder than anything else really.
Yeah, we don’t make companies recycle/reuse the trash that they wrap around food and it’s dirt-cheap to produce more plastic trash, so somewhat unintuitively, it’s not really cheaper to buy food without packaging.
And at that point, you need to have customers that are willing to bring their own containers, just because they themselves want to reduce trash. Those kind of customers will also want organic, so now you’re more expensive. 🫠
Welp, if you’re willing to buy organic anyways, it’s kind of cool, because it’s a selection of food worth buying.
One time, the guy also let me try unroasted peanuts, which I probably would not have bought otherwise. Like, that’s also kind of cool, that they can have more exotic foods, because you can just try a nibble of it, or buy like a single portion, if it needs to be cooked/prepared…