Target reached!
With the extra £2300 we'll be able to buy a nut butter machine to provide completel...
Plentiful is upsizing - help us grow!
Ramsbottom, England, United Kingdom
Aim: Plentiful: Plastic Free Shop has had a successful first year and it's time to grow. With your help we can open this bigger and better store!
Plentiful opened in Ramsbottom in September 2018 in order to create an alternative to supermarkets, and to allow people of Ramsbottom and further afield to fill their baskets with plastic free dried foods, cleaning products and household/personal essentials.
Our original layout Sept 2018
It soon became the talk of the town, featuring on TV, Radio and national newspapers as the first of its kind in Greater Manchester.
The first year has been a roaring success. The range of products has doubled, we've seen queues out the door, and on a weekend the shop is a tight squeeze to get everyone in!
We're so delighted that in our first year of opening, we've saved over a MILLION pieces of plastic from being used unnecessarily, and we've had the privilege to meet thousands of customers, all wanting to reduce their waste. We've made friends, made mistakes, and made a difference.
It's been incredible. But it is time to move.
We have just signed the lease for a new premises - 46 Bridge Street, Ramsbottom!
Isn't she a babe!?
Why are we upsizing?
If you've been to Plentiful, you'll know how tiny the shop is. A converted terraced living room (with some crafty storage solutions) has managed to squeeze in over 200 products - but that barely scratches the surface when it comes to plastic free shopping. Over the last 12 months, we've seen so many more zero waste alternatives hit the market - but we're all out of space.
It's not just products though. The shop can be uncomfortable at times, especially for buggy or disabled access. We don't want to turn anyone down, but with over 5 people in at once - its an impractical squeeze.
With our new prime location we'll be super easy to find, giving up the opportunity to engage with and inspire more people to make plastic free switches.
We'll have much more space for buggies, multiple people filling at once, more counter space so more people can have the containers weighed and be served, plus space for whole new categories of food and drink.
Plus, we think Plentiful would be a refreshing and beautiful addition to the high street!
Results of the questionnaire
Over the last two weeks we've asked for your opinion. We wanted to know exactly what it is you'd like from the new shop. We had over 200 responses in a week!
Here are the highlights:
86.3% of customers prefer us to weigh jars for you (so we won't be buying super fancy self serve ones)
The top 10 categories, how many votes, and whether we can achieve them...
- 98 votes: Zero waste household products, absolutely!
- 93 votes: Chilled section, we're planning on this for sure. It'll be tricky plastic free but we’re excited to give it a go.
- 89 votes: Zero waste body products, yes yes yes!
- 86 votes: Sustainable gifts, 'tis the season! (that's a yes)
- 83 votes: Organic fruit and veg, we'll do our best but not in this tiny timescale. It may be that we go for the veg box option to prevent wastage (it did receive 72 votes! (we won't ask for crowdfunding for this)
- 77 votes: Fresh bread, we're so keen for this too!
- 74 votes: Zero waste skincare, yes!
- 74 votes: Zero waste hair care, of course.
- 67 votes: Oils, sure thing. We're onto how we can make this work spill free!
- 64 Votes: More pasta. YUP.
- Over 100 votes combined - jars, tins and plastic free cooking ingredients for the cupboard.
And your favourite things about Plentiful so far?
The customer service & having a natter - this will always continue!
The feel good factor - comes for free when shopping with the environment in mind.
The variety of products - will be even wider!
New ideas for low waste living - we're always on the hunt for new products and love sharing tips.
The most popular things to improve on:
More space - comes with the new premises.
More products - absolutely! We want this too.
Less fiddly jars to dispense from - we'll be switching to scoop bins to help this
Fridges/freezers/fresh fruit and veg - we'll be adding a fridge for now, and looking for a local organic veg supplier to team up with in the new year. We'll be VERY new to green-grocering and don't want to create any waste. Bear with us on the veg front.
68% of you wanted us to continue pouring the cleaning products for you. This saves crowdfunding money in spillage or potential new self serve gadgets. :) We're happy to keep helping but will add more staff at busy times.
How exactly we'll be spending the funding:
We don't expect our wonderful customers to foot the whole bill. We've been scrimping and saving all year as we knew the time would come! We do need some help though in order to take the shop to the next level, ensure a smooth fit out and to buy a few large exciting purchases.
Plentiful will be purchasing all new stock, and paying for all the legal bits such as insurance, deposits and staff cover.
Here's what the crowdfunder is for:
- Shop fit out (all shelving for new products, displays, signage, counter, attachments for the dispensers, lighting, joiners, electricians etc.) £3400
- New scoop bins and gravity dispensers for ease of filling, and to provide space for new ingredients - £700
- New double door fridge for chilled plastic free food and drink: £600
- A second set of scales to help weighing and paying - £200
- Accessibility help - ramp for step, steps for children, DDA counter for wheelchair users at cash desk - £100
A message from Abbie...
"Your support so far has meant the world. I honestly never understood the huge impact we could have on each other until opening and meeting so many wonderful people. From announcing this concept over a year ago I felt a huge wave of support from so many of you. I'm touched every day when a new person tells me they've made another sustainable swap thanks to Plentiful. We're not competing with the supermarkets, we're offering something entirely different. This is feel good shopping. Honest, ethical, and the way it should be. One day we might take the big supermarkets down though, you never know ;)"
This project successfully funded on 8th November 2019