Collect up your jars, we are going on an exciting adventure. A place with walls of organic, exotic and hard to find foods and ingredients. Did I mention delicious treats? You will want to collect up all the jars you can find, so you can fill them up with everything your heart desires.
Last week I went to GoodFor Wholefoods Refillery. And wow, it was like heaven. I didn't know where to start! If you haven't shopped at a place like this before, well you are in luck, I am going to give you a complete run down of my experience.
I went to the GoodFor in Parnell, which is pretty much right next door La Cigale, aka the French Market. It was a little tricky to find because it is hidden away under a canopy. You drive through the carpark and then turn left into what looks like a carport. That is where their parking is. Right outside the store. I walked through the door and there were a couple of friendly women behind the counter in the centre of the store, I presume they were refilling containers. I asked them to weigh my jars before I stated. They weigh them all and write the weight on a sticker and stick it to the top of the jar. This way they can subtract the weight of the jar when it comes time to pay. You will be surprised that some jars that look exactly the same often vary significantly in weight, so even if all your jars are the same, they all need to be weighed. If you don't have any jars with you, they do have a good selection of jars there that you can purchase.
After my jars were weighed, the adventure began! I had a good look around before I decided what to put in my containers. I only took six. Rookie mistake. I ended up getting some coconut sugar, baking powder, spelt flour, organic dried apricots, organic almonds and some yeast. I know, not the most exciting selection but I needed all those things for recipes. Oh, and don't forget to look at the product code when you fill up each jar. It's kind of like when you are filling up on pick n mix at the supermarket, you need to write the code on the bag.
I always take my reusable bag to keep all my jars in. It would be entertaining to juggle all your jars while you walk around the shop, but much more practical to carry them in your reusable bag.
Once I had filled them all up, I put all my jars on the counter and the lovely lady weighed them all. She put my details in their system so she could email the receipt. Fantastic! One less useless receipt going to the land fill!
And that's it! It's super easy, and so many people take their own jars in there, so you won't feel stupid if it's your first time. I have made a checklist below to make it simple.
To shop waste free you will need to take:
1. Jars/containers
2. Pen - for writing on the labels
3. Reusable bag - to put your shopping in
4. Money!
So go check it out! They currently have 4 stores in Auckland. If you don't live close to a GoodFor shop, don't worry, there should be a Bin Inn or something similar near you.
