This week we had an interesting thought provoking interaction with a local small business. They had a table out the front of the store which had both eco friendly reusable products and plastic wrapped gifts. The only sign said ‘D.I.Y. Christmas Gifts @ GRAINA’.
GRAINA call themselves a ‘bulk wholefoods/Zero Waste’ business.
Usually you don’t see any plastic anywhere in the store, hence why it was shocking and disappointing to see. We posted it up on our Instagram feed and tagged them. They replied.
grainampc
We are so glad that you picked up on that small but important detail. In our display we had deliberately put in Onya branded products with cellophane packed products. Unless there is choice shown, customers won’t know about it. As a retailer we absolutely support zero waste movement but it needs wider adoption in our society. For this to occur we need customers behaviour to change. For that to happen there needs to be choices shown and customers educated. In our experience till now majority are still unaware of zerowaste and the perception is that it’s too expensive, too much work to follow the life style. Which it isn’t and as a retailer we have shown that to numerous customers.
Plus I won’t shy away in saying this, as a small retailer competing not only against big supermarkets but also big bulkfood franchises, it’s hard to financially survive. Which we learnt the hard way in our first Christmas, where our sales dipped below November in our first year and we were close to financially giving up. Having these hampers have made a little difference, hence it’s mainly due to commercial reasons but not without a hidden agenda of having a discussion with customers. Plus the plastic that we are using is cellophane (plant based) which can biodegrade in 60-90 days.
Graina supports zero waste philosophy and provides options to customers that is comparable not only in pricing and quality but in product innovation. Did you know that we make fresh almond or macadamia or coconut milk ON ORDER using glass bottles that the customers can swap with next order using circular economy principles that has virtually no waste.
We understand your frustration and we are working towards making a difference in small ways. 🙏
They are right, more education is needed for consumers to try and make alternative choices to the plastics they buy but there didn’t seem to be any signage or indication that that was happening as part of this table display, neither did it happen through conversation with the cashier on our visit. Consumers wouldn’t know that the cellophane is plant based however this is an easy fix through signage showing what they are encouraging through plant based materials.
The other issue we felt we should write about is the financial side of running a small business that has been built around an eco friendly ethos; it’s not an essay on the economics of that, but rather some social commentary and thoughts pertaining to it.
It’s good to see GRAINA don’t feel like they should shy away from talking about the financial implications of this type of business but it still feels like such companies should do everything they can to make sure their ethos is revealed openly and transparently. If your underlying principles are around ethical and sustainable shopping and lifestyle, then everything you sell should not appear like it could be something else (in the case of these plastic wrapped gifts).
Maybe it’s us, finding it difficult to see this from the business perspective, but we kind of think it goes along the same lines as it does for consumers. What we mean by this is, if a business makes a commercial decision to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ then that is a conscious choice and reason to keep the money rolling in but it’s still a choice nonetheless. In the same way as consumers if we don’t have our reusable product with us, we have a decision to buy an item anyway or go without. That’s what ethics come down to but supposedly businesses would argue it’s not a choice if they go under.
There are two areas this leads us to think about, the first being the ethics as described above – which is tricky but as we’ve seen time and time again, if a business wants to promote itself as eco-conscious then it really has to mean it (H&M get slagged off a lot for being a brand that wants to change consumer habits whilst still having their main goal of consumers buying more!). If a business really wants to brand itself and hold dear to either their personal beliefs or even capitalising on a ‘trend’, then when it does something seemingly out of place, it needs to explain it and do what it can to minimise the risk of hypocrisy in the first place as there is always higher scrutiny of businesses that brand themselves as niche or built on a certain ethos.
The second area of interest is around the simple cost and risk small businesses go through every day. They aren’t being bank rolled and often are such a labour of love from a small set of people or family members. We love small business and try to support them over the bigger giants but that’s also why we think it’s important to have a conversation around when things look out of place or at odds; after all we all (as consumers) buy into that small business’s beliefs as well, hence why we shop there.
Small businesses will always struggle against the big brands. Fact.
The thing we can do about it, is by working to find ways to explain and get consumers to understand why it is better to shop local. The way in which this most effectively happens, in our experience, is through connecting with consumers hearts – their beliefs and their motivations. Telling someone something is good or bad rarely has much impact but finding out what it is that could or would connect someones motivations (time, money, weather, etc) with beliefs (values) can have a huge impact.
Another important factor in all this is how we as communities can help support small businesses to garner funds and even partnerships to create successful business plans. We are always stronger together. Some councils do really well in this space, by offering grants to start ups to take advantage of tax cuts, rebates and funding that is available. It would also be great to see businesses go into partnership with others who have well aligned goals and ethos’. The harsh economic environment that one shop owner has to contend with daily, could not only be shared but better supported if more people were in it together.
Maybe that’s a naive thought, but also maybe we need to change the way we look at business models. Even those stores who are eco conscious and offer products to consumers who hold these beliefs high, are often ultimately there to make a profit.
How many (zero waste) businesses are out there that use a ‘for purpose’ model rather than a standard economic gain model? This of course changes all objectives, planning and outcomes of what is stocked on shelves, laid out on table displays and ultimately what the bottom line looks like but would that be such a bad thing if we re-imagine those first 3-5 years of these businesses or start ups, to be more financially reliant on subsidy, and then moving to other sustainable models? Sharing equity for many shopkeepers is probably not what they are looking to achieve but the thought of shared responsibility and risk, is surely appealing for small business…?
For this to happen (more subsidy as well as changes in legislation) , we need to rally to those who have the power to distribute funding as well as those responsible for building economic success for the many not the few. We can’t remove ourselves from commercialism entirely, nor would most of us want to but there are plenty of us who want more sustainable and more mindful ways and ideas of creating environments that don’t make us feel like the economy only serves the rich and instead helps support movements to reduce our waste, reuse items and replace less.
MINDFULOFIDEAS 