Week One - Completed!

Wow, it feels incredibly surreal to be writing this! We have completed our first week of official trading and what a week it was!

We firstly, want to say a huge thank you to everyone who popped in, had a look around and purchased something from our little store. We have been so overwhelmed with the positivity we received and even after all the hard work we put into the shop, we never expected it to receive such an amazing reception to our little town.

Secondly, we want to say a big thank you to everyone who helped to get the store open! There were some very stressful times in the last few weeks before opening, and many friends and family got involved right up to the wire to stock the shelves, clean up, price everything and more. Without this help, we would have easily been weeks behind and not be sat here now saying we’ve officially done the first week of business. So thank you to all those involved.

We thought we’d share with you all some of our top sellers and top questions, in case you were feeling nosey… hehe.

Week One’s Top Selling Items

Milk

No real surprise to us. After lots of comments online and on Facebook about getting a milk dispenser, it was no shock to see this flying out. We actually ran out twice as it was even more popular than expected! We’ve adjusted our future orders so we can always be in stock. Thankfully, we weren’t out of stock for long, with Craig’s Farm Dairy ensuring we got extra milk whenever we yelled HELP!

Pistachios

A little more surprising… Pistachios are one of our biggest sellers! Be careful with these however, they do come out pretty quick, and not in a measured dose, so if you only want a little bit, be gentle with the gravity dispenser handle…

rCup’s

Our favourite hot drink cups have been flying off the shelves. These cups are made from used paper cups, but are super hardy, easier to drink from, BPA free and completely leak proof. We love them, and clearly you guys do too! Large cups are £12, smaller cups are £11. Be sure to get one quick though as they are selling quick!

Peanut Butter

This one was a little secret at first… but once we announced it, it went CRAZY! We purchased a WeNut machine, which in seconds grinds down Roasted Peanuts into delicious Peanut Butter. This Peanut Butter is JUST peanuts, none of the palm oil, sugar, etc that is in many others. Know exactly what is in the products you eat, and get as much, or as little, as you need! 84p per 100g, simply weigh your container, pop on a sticker, pop it under and press START. When you have as much as you’d like, just press STOP. Watch our video here - Peanut Butter Video on Facebook.

Week One’s Top Questions

Will you sell Whole Milk?

We’ve heard this one a lot! Plenty of you with little ones in particular, are looking for Whole Milk, instead (or as well) as Semi Skimmed. We’re looking at options in which we can do this. The machines are quite large, and our store is only little, so we are looking at how to rejig the space to fit in the second machine, without loosing any of our stock. Rest assured, talks are happening with our carpenter, and Craig’s Farm Dairy, and we will have it as soon as we can.

How does it work?

One we expected! As our shop is different to most, we knew many wouldn’t know what to do. So to refresh…

When you arrive, if you have containers from home, head over to get them weighed. They will need a sticker added to the container with the weight, BEFORE you fill them, so we can accurately deduct the weight from them.

If you don’t have a container, and want a FREE one, you can choose on of our donated containers positioned underneath, on the trolley with the scales on. These are all FREE but will still need weighing before filling.

If you don’t have a container, and want a pretty NEW one, these are dotted around on our shelves next to the products they suit. These won’t need weighing as we know the weights of these already.

Once weighed, fill with the product you like and then when done, head to the till. We’ll deduct the weight of the container off and you will only pay for what you’ve chose.

If you are unsure, grab a member of staff, and they will gladly help.

Are liquids also done by weight?

Yes. Roughly they translate 100ml to 100g however this is not always the case, and we still recommend adding a little, weighing it and repeating until happy. This is done for a number of reasons, primarily due to the additional complications it creates when it comes to using different containers etc. To keep it as simple as possible, ALL foods and liquids are done by weight and we’ve tried to pop little examples around to give you an idea as to how much 100g is for different liquids.

What are the opening hours?

Monday to Friday, we are open 9.30am until 5pm. On Saturdays, we open at 9am until 4pm. We are closed Sundays.

If you ever wish to pick up something when you finish work (for example at 5.10pm!), just call us and we can often help out within reason. However, we are open throughout the day, including lunch time, if you needed to pop by during lunch breaks etc.

Thank you so much for all your support in Week One, it has been a pleasure to meet you all, and looking forward to another successful, Plastic Free week!

Cheryl. x