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Do You Use Refill Shops?

One thing that would concern me (I don't have one near me to check, and if anyone thinks getting on a tube to go shopping means "near me" because something happens to be in the same city they have misunderstood London geography and can go do one), is if someone used a shovel to pick up peanuts and then used it in a sack of oats, that cross-contamination is not safe for me.
 
I rely heavily on my local refill shop.

Money: some things are cheap but overall I am paying more than I would at a supermarket. Whether it's affordable will depend entirely on the person's income/budget but it's pretty much Waitrose crowd so I wouldn't say that people complaining of the cost are in any way exaggerating. I pick and choose what's affordable to me (and what doesn't feel like a rip-off). A few years ago this would have been entirely out of my budget.

Prep: I've dedicated some shelf space at home to store empty containers so they're to hand when I need them. Most of my shopping is taken care by a weekly supermarket delivery but I have a magnetic board on the fridge with a 'to buy' section where refill stuff goes for easy reference. You need wide-mouthed containers for stuff that comes out of dispensers (e.g. beans) - think large pickle jars. Spices, oils, cleaning products are refilled by staff (at least in my local shop) and they can refill any containers (bottles are fine).

But: I seem to recall big supermarkets boasting that they'd be offering refillable goods by Christmas, what happened to those promises?
 
bluescreen said:
There's one near me but I've never been in as I'm not sure what it stocks or how it works, whether it's self service (which has always put me off for reasons given above) or how fresh the bulk food products are, or free from weevil eggs etc. Don't like to go in without buying anything as it's a small shop run by enthusiasts.

It makes me realise I put an unhealthy trust in brands and their need to protect their reputation, which in turn depends on the quality of inspection and sanctions. I like to know where things come from and how they are produced so filling up from an anonymous container of flour or walnuts doesn't massively appeal.
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So the supermarket is the

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Callie said:
They are around.



There has been a weigh and save in Croydon for donkeys years. More recently there is one opened a bit further away Pendricks zero waste in Caterham.
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I've used Pedrick's a few times. Some of the stuff is quite expensive - the shower gel and handwash were dearer than the stuff I get in Waitrose! The coffee was far more expensive so didn't even try it. I suspect some of the stuff is on a par price-wise with some other shops but short of taking a list with prices per kg or litre etc. with me I couldn't be sure.

The farm shop I visit sometimes (Priory Farm in Nutfield) does loose frozen veg (as does Pedrick's) but I've never bought any from there so haven't got any price comparisons. I go to the farm shop for the butchers, green grocery and fresh fish counter which are good. But again, it means a car journey to get there so don't do it that often.

My brother has a shop which sells refill stuff and it appears to be significantly cheaper than Pedrick's but it's in the Cotswolds so I can't exactly pop over there and buy stuff from him.
 
There's one near me but I go to the one three towns over instead so I can join in with all the people complaining about how far away it is.

And if anyone tells me I could just go to the closer one instead, they can fucking do one. Nobody actually has told me that, but I'm very cross about it all the same.
 
Loads in Hackney (no surprise there) there's even a van that goes to various parts and you can fill up various things . Haven't done it though .
 
There’s a couple within driving distance. One is on a road where it’s hard to park and I think the other one is in the town centre.

Tbh I like the idea but I do lack the time or energy to shop in multiple places. I work full time Monday to Friday and don’t want to spend each weekend going to butchers/grocers/refill shop and then topping up at Tesco anyway.

If I had a day off in the week it would be quieter maybe.

I’m also fussy about stuff like washing liquid, toiletries etc so sadly I think they’re not for me for my regular shops. I’m probably more likely to use them if I was baking or something as I could buy what I needed which is less wasteful.
 
TopCat said:
49p for 500ml in Lidl. I cant see the benefit.
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I use a dishwasher mainly so I thought I'd check dishwasher tablets too. Pedrick's is 50% more than Waitrose for a 70 tablet pack.

It's seeing the price differences I've just found and on the things I've bought in there which make me reluctant to buy anything from Pedrick's.

I believe in the principle of zero-waste but not if I end up paying so much extra. :(
 
There aren't any near us, doing a search for refill shops shows the 2 nearest are in Nottingham and Loughborough both about 30 miles away. I have a big 5ltr thing of Carex handwash in the garage from which I refill the handwash dispensers but that is about it.
 
Epona said:
One thing that would concern me (I don't have one near me to check, and if anyone thinks getting on a tube to go shopping means "near me" because something happens to be in the same city they have misunderstood London geography and can go do one), is if someone used a shovel to pick up peanuts and then used it in a sack of oats, that cross-contamination is not safe for me.
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I would hope any selling nuts do it the same as my local one. The jars with nuts have a tap at the bottom.
Jars with spices have their own metal scoop attached.
There are paper bags if you haven't got your own container.
 
Never seen one anywhere near here at all, well one, 10 years ago that seemed to charge considerably more for questionable products as there was absolutely no idea of how long anything was there and it tasted old.
I buy in bulk anyway where I can so we have huge stores of most things and then 20x the usual quantity will arrive from some supplier before its needed to stock up. Only an option because we are not in a flat/smaller house and we have storage everywhere and the capacity to buy in bulk to begin with.
To use a refill shop I would need to seem high volume of people through it to ensure its fresh, some indication of when it is actually likely to have been from when dispensed, it being walking distance and also being comparative on price. It's a tall order in a rural area, probably why none of these places survive.
 
MickiQ said:
There aren't any near us, doing a search for refill shops shows the 2 nearest are in Nottingham and Loughborough both about 30 miles away. I have a big 5ltr thing of Carex handwash in the garage from which I refill the handwash dispensers but that is about it.
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I might start taking my containers into public toilets. I’ll do some research about which places have the best hand wash. 👍
 
You pay more, lots more, and have to bring your own container. This is the modern version of weigh and save?
 
I've used the shop moonsi til is refering to a couple of times. I probably fit into that 'keep meaning to' category. As it is, I get most of my dried food from our surplus market so dont need much. But the added effort to have containers with me and get there before it closes, means I rarely get round to it.
We're going to start using products from there at work soon though 🙂

I think the problem with this shop is that people don't know what it sells. The footfall doesn't really have much effect either, as you can't just nip in and get something if you haven't got your containers. The coffee and cake thing is a good idea to get people in though.
 
Looby said:
I might start taking my containers into public toilets. I’ll do some research about which places have the best hand wash. 👍
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If you find any that use good stuff let us know, work was a complete washout in this regard
 
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No. There is one near me thats over priced. One in town which is a health food store with the whole grain bean taps and some liquid refill bla bla. And a farm shop near me that does various liquids for again more expensive prices than just buying new from the supermarket.

Currently I mostly buy ecover (detergent and softner) when it's on sale. And usually shoplift it anyway by not scanning it at the scab tills. So yeah.. sorry little waste shops but no ta.

Also, I hate washing up with non frothy washing up liquid so only buy Fairy. You need to use more chemical with the hippy shit and it never seems to get stuff clean. I dont run water when I am.washing up and use a minimal amount of chemical goop so I think that's greener than a couple of plastic bottles per year. Fossil fuel companies have just made £150 billion profit destroying the planet and some dafties think theyre changing that with their non frothy washing up liquid....
 
We have 3 within walking distance. I use one in a slightly patchy way. I particularly like it for things like nuts and dried fruit which are much nicer than supermarket. I think they have a pretty fast turnover. Some things are cheaper and some are more expensive.
 
TopCat said:
You pay more, lots more, and have to bring your own container. This is the modern version of weigh and save?
Click to expand...

Our one is cheaper for herbs and spices than Tesco. We also buy solid shampoo which doesn't need a plastic bottle at all.
 
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