We have good news for all eco-conscious customers here in Brno. “Bezobalový obchod Brno” opened a month ago and is located in Brno – Lesná.
“Unpackaged” shopping is a new shopping philosophy of limiting the unnecessary product packaging. Customers bring their own containers, bags, or bottles and refill them as much as they need. Unpackaged shopping aims to gradually reduce the excess amount of waste produced by food packaging and food waste. The first store that offers unpackaged groceries was opened in 2007 by Catherine Conway in London. The trend quickly spread across Europe. Such stores usually offer organic food and support zero-waste concept.
The idea of Unpackaged shopping reached Brno
We visited “Bezobalový obchod Brno” yesterday. The store embraces zero waste concept providing products such as fresh bread, spices, flour, oats, sugar, salt, pasta, legumes, nuts, seeds, coffee, olive oil, and more. Radim Kučera, the owner of the store, happily answered our questions in a friendly interview.
The idea for upackaged store came to Radim during his recent trip in Thailand. He witnessed a huge amount of waste in the country – mostly plastic. “When I’m on vacation my skin usually cleans up; there for the first time my skin got worse. I got bad acne for how dirty the local water was. Ι felt that we have to do something to change this whole thing.”
We were curious on how Czech customers react to the new concept and if they embrace it. The shop has its regular customers who are fairly familiar with the idea. There are many passersby who stop by and take a look at the store, too. Others find the prices too high and prefer to shop at the supermarkets.
But why are “unpackaged” products more expensive? The answer is simple. Most of unpackaged groceries are organic and their quality is always high. “Bezobalový obchod Brno” works mostly with Czech suppliers and producers. Radim believes that fair prices need to be paid to the producers, the manufacturers, and everybody in the chain of production in order to rise the quality of goods.
The whole concept is still fresh in the country. There is a store in Prague operating for two years now. Around 10 stores appeared over the past few months in the Czech Republic, for example, in Zlin and Olomouc.
In the future, Radim would like to open stores also in other parts of the city, offer more zero-waste products, and share his views on product line diversification and minimalist household concept.
You can find Bezobalový obchod Brno, on Nezvalova 4 (Brno – Lesná), and on Facebook, here.
Title Picture: @BrnoDaily
