Feature: Refill Revolution
Consumers are urged to embrace a bring-your-own approach to buying – but what about the experience of the retailer? Rosie Greenaway seeks to better understand the practicalities and perils of refills from those at the heart of the revolution.
Reduce, reuse, refill, recycle — all worthy messages to endorse to a well-meaning, eco-aware public. But from a commercial standpoint there’s a word missing here: retail. Rarely do customers — with their empties in tow — consider the experience of the refill retailer, whose responsibility it is to offer an appealing range, maintain fair prices, educate the unconverted, mop up spillages and adhere to strict hygiene protocols, all while ensuring that their planet-friendly business doesn’t become a financial foe.
To refill or not to refill: that is the question on so many retailers’ lips.
In Shakespeare country, for Charlie Demetriou, offering a store dedicated to refills was a no-brainer, a way of satisfying a personal desire to live more consciously. Shopping without excessive packaging, or without any whatsoever, was first a dream and then a business plan. Demetriou opened one Zero Store pre-pandemic, followed by another post — and these are now supported by several concessions across Warwickshire.
Establishing etiquette
Also opening during the COVID years were mother and daughter duo Stamena and Leny Dimitrova, launching Refillable in Bath in 2020 before expanding to Tetbury last year.
The pair built their plastic-negative shopping platform based on local demand for unpackaged goods and experiential retail, which remained strong despite the pandemic.
Contrary to what has been reported by many stores in the wholefood community, the business saw significant appetite for refills during COVID, navigating any potential hygiene concerns with robust and strictly implemented safety protocols. “Presenting stock in open containers requires even higher levels of food safety and hygiene,” says Dimitrova, whose ‘firm policies’ offer structure for employees and shoppers, eliminating ambiguity around etiquette and reducing mess. At Refillable, team training starts with conveying the rules ‘in a friendly yet firm manner’. Self-serve is for over-18s only and staff are quick to offer assistance — spillages are costly and cleaning-up is time consuming. “Without structure and policies, things can get out of hand quickly. The devil is in the detail.”
But Dimitrova maintains that ‘selling refills should not be a struggle’. “It’s a highly enjoyable experience if it’s managed properly. The more the refill industry grows, the stronger our wholesalers will become, the more stock will be available, the greater the environmental impact will be. It’s a win on all accounts.”
And while some practical aspects of a refills business may differ, in general she says it ‘bears the same challenges as a packaged goods store’. “We should not treat ourselves as a ‘white elephant’. It’s a business. It has to be sustainable in order to tackle sustainability issues. It has to offer the right stock to attract the right customers. Grocery retail is a very hungry beast with huge logistical demands.”
Keen to help indie producers scale their small businesses the duo set up a partner programme. “We help the promising ones to scale up with us, offering them mentoring, listing space, guidance and feedback from our customers. Many have grown with us; also, many have been delisted.”
Demographic & demand
What to list and delist is a hot topic for Phil Haughton too, in efforts to make refills work efficiently across the Better Food empire. Realizing that the demographic wasn’t appropriate in Wapping Wharf, the convenience store scrapped refills.
“People weren’t prepared for it — they’re busy, on-the-go, on their way home. It’s a different mindset. At our mothership store [St Werburgh’s], where we still have a significant amount of it, people expect it of us.” There are a number of unpackaged self-serve items that sell well: bare lettuce; bag-free bread; frozen berries, croissants and buns; and loose eggs, which can be bought singly. “We’re all for reducing plastic wherever possible. We do it very successfully.”
Haughton has admiration for specialist traders like Refillable who are ‘really gunning for it’ — however in his experience the world of food refills is complex and perilous. There’s the risk of moth infestations which are hard to eliminate. A dedicated refill store could spring up nearby, offering expertise and a wider range, as was the case on Whiteladies Road. There’s the legacy of COVID: “From the moment that COVID arrived it killed [refills] stone-dead. Anybody you ask who is prepared to give you the truth would say the volume of sales has never recovered.” And then there’s the question of whether refills solve anything environmentally.
“My industry view is that refill has been a bit of a disaster for the sector. It’s not a great thing to do for a retailer”
Reputation of refills
“My industry view is that refill has been a bit of a disaster for the sector. It’s not a great thing to do for a retailer; it’s an important thing to offer customers. I don’t believe that environmentally it’s made the slightest bit of difference. If you look at the carbon footprint of all the kit that you buy … it’s like an electric car, you have to do 40,000 miles before you get any environmental benefit, because of the impact of making an electric car.”
He points to brown paper bags as a dent in the reputation of refills, with unprepared shoppers reaching for what they perceive as eco-friendly convenience. “When people are coming to our stores they might be less prepared than when going specifically to Scoopaway, in terms of what they bring. If you look at the carbon footprint of a brown paper bag as opposed to very thin [plastic bags], actually the environmental impact (if you dispose of it well) is probably better than the paper bag. But it’s not a good message for a consumer to hear that.”
Creating education
Part of Better Food’s role, as Haughton sees it, is to ensure customers never feel judged for their motivations or for doing their best — brown paper bags included.
“We try to make everybody welcome and feel good about buying anything from our shops. But also in a softly-softly way, stimulating the idea of being curious about what you’re buying, creating a little education.”
By Rosie Greenaway, editor