What Planet Are You On? A Zero waste store in need

Aim

Veteran turned Eco Warrior. Our sustainable refill store is struggling to stay a float.

Hi everyone. We are Ben & Kelda of What Planet Are You On? A sustainable refill store located in the heart of Guisborough, situated on the edge of the North York Moors National Park.

Our Story

Our dream of providing the local community with their own plastic free refill store came true last summer when we received a £30,000 loan from X-Forces, who actively supported us in our new venture.

Ben served in 1st Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment just shy of 10 years, including a tour of Afghanistan. Ben -" I have travelled all over the world training in defence and now I want to pursue the fight to save our planet".

After our military wedding in Warminster and Bens departure from the army we came back to our home turf to start creating our passion to help others along in their eco journeys. We are so thankful to be surrounded by such beauty from the East Coast and the North Yorkshire Moors, its impossible to not appreciate and want to preserve our planet for future generations. Our planet is suffocating in plastic pollution. We've all seen the tv programmes and desperately distressing picture's on social media of dead and dying animals and our collapsing eco systems. It can all feel very doomsday. Our shop changes this impending perception. Do good.. feel good! Make a change, fight back!

What Planet Are You On?

We support other local producers, stocking their produce including honey, eggs, preserves and oil. Provide the community with fresh plastic free veg boxes, donating any surplus produce to food distribution schemes, helping our local area and the wider world. Products are sourced from the UK wherever possible to reduce carbon footprint and support the local economy. All our plastic free alternatives are natural and cruelty free, ranging from recycled aluminium foil to vegan deodorant sticks as well as an ethical gift section. And of course our refills! All laundry, household and cleaning products from family run company FillRefill. Cupboard essentials, dried foods, herbs, coffee, tea, vegan pick'n'mix, you name it. We really have strived to provide as much choice as possible for those who are really trying to pull away from all the unnecessary plastic packaging at Supermarkets, enabling people to ultimately reduce waste. We also provide popular Terracycle schemes for the community. 

How we need help

We along with many others did not foresee the current steep financial increases to everyday life. Being on the high street does come with its price tag and with that and our loan, ends just wont meet for much longer. Our financial forecast has fallen short the last couple of months with each average customer spend dropping, leaving us frightened for our future rent payments.

Currently we repay £640 a month off our loan. This coupled with £3375 every three months on rent, business rates and the cost of living crisis we really are struggling. Before the cost of living crisis we were seeing a month to month increase in sales and we were managing to pay both the rent and the loan, but now we can't. This is why we are asking for your help! We managed to pay the rent from April through to July, but as it stands now we are unable to pay our next set of rent on the 19th July as well as our loan repayment. This means that if we don't raise the funds we very reluctantly may have to close our dream shop!  

We're both people who don't like to ask for help easily, especially financial. That's why we decided to get a loan and not a crowd funder to open the shop. So this has been a difficult decision to cry out for help, we have been putting a brave face on hoping sales would recover. But in all honesty we have been "just surviving" for a few months now.

What Planet Are You On? Does have a loyal, regular customer base along with an ever expanding new customer. Our Shop can survive just like our planet can, we both just need a helping hand. Paying both the rent and the loan at this moment in time has become difficult to near impossible. Over the last few months we have been managing to replace stock with no money left in the bank to save for the next 3 months rent. 

There is a light at the end of the tunnel, people do want to support and buy local and keep their high street alive and breathing. High streets in towns are now seeing an increase in footfall. Since the pandemic we believe more people are conscious of the planet crisis and how to shop to save our earth. Every penny raised will go towards paying our rent for the next 6 months. We strongly believe (with some much needed help) this eco shop will succeed and continue to grow, we are not going to stop fighting easily!

When we hopefully raise enough to pay the rent taking us up until Christmas, any extra funds will go back into growing the shop by expanding our stock and range of products, in turn reducing impact on the environment. 

Thank you so much for reading and any amount you can give will be massively appreciated in saving our little planet saving shop. Peace out! 

This project successfully funded on 18th July 2022