How often do you use zero waste stores?

I'm from the UK and the price of food is skyrocketing! It's becoming a bit more difficult to use them as my primary food shop as they can be quite expensive...

I don't mind using the supermarket but I prefer to use refill stores that stock local and organic produce without the plastic waste. Is anyone else struggling at the moment? Is it just me?

I have mainly used zero waste stores for things like toiletries & cleaning supplies. I find zero waste stores mainly supply foods we don't eat (grains, pulses, vegan processed foods etc.) so I focus on sourcing our food as locally as I can and then minimise packaging as a second priority. There are no local refill stores where I am so I have to work with what's available.

At the supermarket I buy veg loose wherever it is available and use my own containers from home for things like meat/fish if I can. There is a small local food producers' market through OpenFoodNetwork, but a lot of the products are luxury (charcuterie) or things we don't eat (jams make up almost half of the listings at times) so I don't make as much use of it as I'd like to. It might be worth looking in case there's something near to you!

In terms of cost I buy a lot of our food in bulk, either from a local wholesaler or online for more 'exotic' items. I am also working to maximise growing our own food although we are far from self-sufficient on that front! :)

Never, there are none anywhere near us. The closest would be a 5 hour round trip, and remember I live in a country that you can drive all the way across in 4.5 hours. Our local town has very little that can be bought without packaging. sometimes you might get potatoes and occasional fruit like bananas or apples.
In summer you can get most vegetables from farm stands but they will still be packaged, it makes 0 economic sense for me to not use packaging, a bunch of radishes lasts about an hour "loose" but 2-3 days in a plastic bag. which is better, food waste or packaging?

Hello Victoria and welcome to Permies!
I hear what you're saying about zero waste shopping being expensive, but it doesn't have to be. I run a little shop on Skye and we were lucky enough to get a grant from Zero Waste Scotland a year ago to extend the package free offering we had (see my original thread). Because we are a small rural store, the market for organic wholefoods is not big enough to justify my stocking that range only, so I chose goods that were mainstream, retaining the organic option in packets. This is sort of a win-win I think. The zero waste option, because I was buying catering packs turned out cheaper, and the people who chose not to use the zero waste goods, get a better grade of product also. In an ideal world of course we'd only stock organic, locally produced food, but then it would be only a fantasy shop as it would quickly close down!
I notice your website link Pick Ethical. I must see if I can register with them, we're not just zero waste of course but a full convenience store that tries to do better.

Is there an easy way to find zero waste stores nearby? The only one that I knew of was a six hour round trip, and it has since gone out of business.

Living in the middle of nowhere in the north of the UK, I do not know where our nearest zero-waste store is. Our local supermarket has, however, stopped providing plastic bags for loose vegetables. Imagine my surprise when arriving at the checkout, the assistant took a plastic bag from beside the till and put my carrots in it. I was quite happy to put them in my carrier as they were.
A zero-waste store has opened in the town where my adult children live so last time I was there I thought I would check it out. Trouble is, I didn't find out the opening times before I went and it was closed so that will have to wait until I next visit.

K McFarlane wrote:I have mainly used zero waste stores for things like toiletries & cleaning supplies. I find zero waste stores mainly supply foods we don't eat (grains, pulses, vegan processed foods etc.) so I focus on sourcing our food as locally as I can and then minimise packaging as a second priority. There are no local refill stores where I am so I have to work with what's available.

At the supermarket I buy veg loose wherever it is available and use my own containers from home for things like meat/fish if I can. There is a small local food producers' market through OpenFoodNetwork, but a lot of the products are luxury (charcuterie) or things we don't eat (jams make up almost half of the listings at times) so I don't make as much use of it as I'd like to. It might be worth looking in case there's something near to you!

In terms of cost I buy a lot of our food in bulk, either from a local wholesaler or online for more 'exotic' items. I am also working to maximise growing our own food although we are far from self-sufficient on that front! :)

That's a good idea! I do order re-fillable cleaning bits at the moment, but I suppose shopping locally for them would be good.

I've not heard of the OpenFoodNetwork I shall have a look...

Me too! Hoping to learn a bit more from the keen gardners on here about keeping my veg alive!

Skandi Rogers wrote:Never, there are none anywhere near us. The closest would be a 5 hour round trip, and remember I live in a country that you can drive all the way across in 4.5 hours. Our local town has very little that can be bought without packaging. sometimes you might get potatoes and occasional fruit like bananas or apples.
In summer you can get most vegetables from farm stands but they will still be packaged, it makes 0 economic sense for me to not use packaging, a bunch of radishes lasts about an hour "loose" but 2-3 days in a plastic bag. which is better, food waste or packaging?

So disappointing to hear that you struggle to find anywhere nearer! It's a good question, food packing or food waste? I've been buying some frozen veg to save money, and to stop as much food waste.

I can't understand why more supermarkets can't use the biodegradable bags more often...

Unfortunately, almost never. There is a co-op about an hour away from me - and it's not 100% zero waste or anything; still many pieces of packaging throughout the store - but they are trying to promote bulk and they're in a small kind-of college town. Unfortunately super expensive (or should I say, accurately-priced?) as well and obviously you need to have a membership. I applaud them, still.

I think a lot can be purchased close to zero waste without these stores, though, if you have the good fortune to be able to buy a lot at one time/stockpile when you find an item you need and work from there. I'm also interested in how this works out if say, me and a bunch of my neighbors got together to buy bulk online and split everything versus say, 6 households traveling around, buying 6x the packaging, to find items that we all use & need. Or 20 households? I guess a mini co-op is what I'm after. The ugly truth is that some zero waste stores may still use a lot of packaging anyways, just behind the scenes so you feel good about your purchases there.