First 'Zero Waste' Grocery Shopping Adventure
- Sep 8, 2015
- 4 min read
Armed with one canvas bag filled with two flat glass pyrex containers for my meats, 5 12 oz canning jars, 5 16oz jars, two reusable bags for cheeses, and 5 produce fabric baggies. I felt a bit awkward walking through the doors of my regular go-to, the Whole Foods down the street from me, carting a jinging sack over my shoulder.
This Whole Foods had signs up all over the place about bringing your own container- so that had me hopeful. Right away the nice manager saw me ( I am regular) and saw my bag. She took me right over to customer service and weighed each item and put a small little sticker on each with the weight. She was super encouraging and excited- so that was nice.
WF Surprises:
I ended up spending almost my whole time in the bulk section and produce. I am so used to my normal shopping trip walk down a series of aisles and instead I am hanging out in the same two aisles for 45 minutes whist I measured and filled jars with granola, rolled oats, nuts, honey and the like.
When I brought my glass containers up to the butcher sheepishly and apologetically, the butcher was super nice to me and smiled and said that it saves him from using his paper and he appreciates that. I got my steak out into one container and the bacon into another. Lids went on and he slapped on the price sticker on each.
Also, what was the by far the most delightful surprise was soap. I had purchased bulk soap before as gifts, but never because I needed soap. I usually just Costco-ed that puppy and got like 16 bars of Irish Spring wrapped in several layers of cellophane and no recyclable tape. No more. At the soap aisle, I got to smell out my favorites and slice of a couple chunks. The brand I went with was Pacha Bulk Soap and they give a bar of soap to someone in need for every bar purchased- how rad is that?
WF Fails:
No bulk pasta. Bummer. I bought the linguini noodles in the most recyclable package I could detect, but I fear when I do open it it will have a plastic film inside and can't recycle that.
The cheese counter is kind of a lie. So, the nicest people ever helped me at the cheese counter, but you can't request a fresh slice of a round if there are already slices available- and they slice and wrap daily . The guy said he would remove the plastic and give me the slice. I said that would be cheating, but thanked him and did not buy cheese.
Bob failed me- the only masa harina ( key ingredient to make corn tortillas ) available is produced from lovely Bob's Red Mill, and although Mr. Red Mill has all his flours in recyclable paper packages, but the corn flour was in cellophane. Boo. BUT I purchased it anyway - the recipe calls for only a little so I won't have to buy it again for a while.
WF Tip:
Instead of writing bulk SKU #s on little stickers, I wrote them all down and what food item they were on one piece of paper. I then gave the list to the cashier and told her what each container was as I gave them to her. The cashing out could not have gone more smoothly and the cashier thought what I was doing was great and thanked me a ton for giving her a list of SKUs, she said it made it easy for her. Score!
Also, there is a 10 cent discount on every bring-your-own-container item.
SO then in efforts to obtain everything on my list, I drove a few miles away to New Seasons. I don't usually shop here but had some success!
New Seasons Bulk wins:
Pasta! Organic olive oil, canola oil, maple syrup, nut butters, all on tap! I will keep this all in mind when I am in need of these products.
Cheese counter is really a cheese counter!
I got a chunk of Tillamook cheddar which I will use for sandwich slices, cheese sticks and shredded cheese and also a chunk of Parmesan for recipes. The gal who helped me was named Christina- which figures because everyone named Christina in my life has always been super helpful and lovely- and she told me about cheese papers and what the do for preserving.
New Seasons Fails:
They have a ton more bulk that WF, but not as many Organic options.
They do not have any discount for bringing your own container.
All in all guys, I learned a ton and people were generally nice, even enthusiastic to help me. I usually end up with about three bags of groceries each week and for this trip I had a lot more so I had four bags but surprising spent about the same amount, hmmmm...
Now the real work begins.
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