Introducing Katie, our amazing content creator. Katie lives in Melbourne and is passionate about the environment, reality TV and fantasy novels. This week, Katie has been to a refill store for the first time and shares her experience with us.

“I went to a refill store to suss out what it’s all about. They do seem kind of intimidating because firstly, they’re smaller than supermarkets so you feel like people are watching you. And I’m afraid I’m going to be clumsy like I normally am and accidentally knock one of the cereal dispensers and corn flakes will come cascading to the floor and I’ll be escorted out of the building.

But that didn’t happen.

I went in with my empty jars and did my usual thing of pretending I know what I’m doing and then doing it wrong. In the end, the person behind the counter had to redo the weight because I forgot to press “tare” on the scales. My advice would be to just ask for assistance if you need it. (Seems straightforward… So why do I never do it?)

Other than that, the experience was extremely satisfying. If you’re someone who appreciates order and neatness, this is the place for you. My only caveat is that I wish they had a section where you could stick your hands in all the grains for fun.

Although it is slightly more expensive, it wasn’t as much as I thought it was going to be. I bought 1.5kg of brown rice, 1kg of organic pasta and a jar of mixed nuts for $25. The same for chain supermarkets for the home brand stuff would have been around $15. So, actually it is quite a bit more.

But I did genuinely enjoy my shopping experience and it did feel really good to not come home with any plastic. And all of the products were made locally, many of them small businesses, which definitely counts for something.

I will be going again, maybe not all the time, but every now and then.

Refill Stores

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