You don't sell meat for ideological reasons. Are there any products that you would like to include in your assortment but cannot offer?
Unfortunately, we cannot offer olive oil because it is not permitted in the EU to sell bulk olive oil without additives. It was not easy to find producers for tomato puree and soybean milk because these products must be offered in large returnable containers or as unpacked bulk products in large quantities. The producers then have to change their production process which leads to extra costs that in turn make the product more expensive. We are currently looking to solve this problem.
But in your store bread is also sold in bags...
Yes, we do make exceptions. We don't want to scare away the people. Also, most of them simply don't want to give up bananas or citrus fruits which is why we have them in our assortment. Wherever possible, we offer products without packaging, organic and from regional sources.
Some supermarkets have meanwhile also stopped offering plastic bags. Do you think this is purposeful?
Replacing plastic by paper is a good start, but this step alone is not sufficient - not least because the lifecycle assessment of paper bags is not much better than that of plastic bags.
What do you think of compostable bags?
For me, this is the biggest lie of modern times. Especially when it comes to bioplastics. Most people do not dispose compostable bags or bioplastic bags in the correct waste bins. If they end up in the organic waste bin, they often don't find the right temperature or bacteria. The most adequate solution are cloth bags. And where this is not possible, the golden rule is to opt for returnable solutions, for more stable and long-lived bags.
Do you get feedback from the packaging industry?
Not directly. But recently we had visitors from Nespresso. This is our big enemy in terms of packaging. We certainly welcomed the employees with pleasure and introduced them to our concept while hoping for something to change also at Nespresso.