Can you save money by shopping in a zero waste store?

Zero waste shops can help us cut our plastic use and food waste, but how much does it cost to shop there? Piper Terrett investigates.

Zero waste shops, also known as refill stores, are popping up everywhere.

A new one opened in a café in Hertford near us a few weeks ago and another is currently crowdfunding so it can open in Ware.

Many others are setting up around the country, often in empty high street shops.

These shops sell loose items such as pasta, liquid soap, lentils, coffee, tea, rice and detergent, as well as environmentally friendly products, including hair soap bars and reusable coffee cups.

And as these products aren’t in plastic packaging, the idea is that you turn up prepped with your own containers.

Obviously, zero waste shops are geared towards helping shoppers be greener rather than save cash, but I wondered how much the prices differed compared to supermarket prices.

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Inside the refill shop

Emma Riddle, owner of Replenish Refill in Hertford, which is currently in the top floor of Mudlarks Café, was dubious about the outcome of my experiment.

“You might save money on some items but not on others,” she explained.

Tiny refill shops obviously don’t have the huge buying power of the major supermarkets.

Riddle is puzzled, for example, by how Waitrose is able to sell its muesli at the price it does as she is unable to source and sell it at a similar price. 

Shoppers report that some refill shops can be snobby if you turn up with plastic containers, but Riddle is more open-minded and just glad people are trying to change their ways.

I came armed with glass jars, an old plastic milk carton I didn’t end up using, some zip-lock bags and my liquid soap bottle, even though small paper bags are provided for free.

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Stepping back in time

Inside the shop, it was all very reminiscent of old-fashioned sweet shops with big jars of goodies everywhere.

There were large dispensers on the walls full of items such as rice and pulses, with bigger floor-mounted pump dispensers for detergent and liquid soap.

All the shoppers tiptoed around and helped themselves but were worried about spilling things on the floor, which is exactly what we did.

Riddle had to weigh all my jars and bottles first before I filled them, labelling them with their weight.

Everything is priced by weight and she needed to know how much the containers weighed before pricing things up.

This is what I bought:

• 225g Puy lentils: 72p (32p/100g)
• 160g organic Fairtrade coffee beans: £3.31 (£2.07/100g)
• 731g Basmati rice: £2.56 (35p/100g)
• 168g black peppercorns: £4.03 (£2.40/100g)
• 500g spaghetti pasta: £1.50 (30p/100g)
• 258g white fusilli: 77p (30p/100g)
• 250g hand wash: £1.03 (41p/100g)
• Hair washing bar: £2.95

Overall, my shopping came to £16.87.

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How the prices compare

So, did I save money by going to a zero waste shop?

My family tends to shop in Asda, which is pretty competitive. While 30p for 100g sounds cheap, pasta from the refill shop was more expensive, even when considering the increase in prices sparked by higher demand.

A kilogram of Napolina pasta is currently priced at £1.50 to £2, while Asda’s own brand pasta costs around £1 per kilogram.

But the price of pasta at the zero waste shop is closer in price when compared to Sainsbury’s, which sells Napolina fusilli for £2.60 per kilogram.

At the time of writing, Waitrose has a limited stock of Napolina fusilli although you can get two 500g bags of pasta for £2.60.

While it’s slightly more expensive to buy pasta from a refill shop, many shoppers may be relieved to be able to get their hands on some as supermarkets are struggling to keep stock replenished.  

The cost of hand wash was roughly on par with supermarket prices.

Middle range liquid soaps sell for around 40p per 100ml in Sainsbury’s or around 34p per 100ml at Asda. So, 41p per 100ml at the refill shop wasn’t far off the mark, but prices can range from 20p to 70p per 100ml depending on what brand you get.

At Waitrose, middle range liquid soap sells for around 40p per 100ml.

It’s worth noting there can be huge variations in price at any stores due to unprecedented demand during the Coronavirus pandemic. For example, our local chemist was recently selling only 50ml of handwash for £4.

While peppercorns from the refill shop were more expensive than Asda’s own-brand (£1.36/100g), they were cheaper than Schwartz’s, which sold 100g for £3.25 in a big pot, or £6.29 per 100g for a small jar.

Meanwhile, the cheapest peppercorns at Waitrose were more expensive compared to those sold at the zero waste shop, costing £4.48 per 100g.

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Did I find any bargains?

The Puy lentils were a bargain at 32p per 100g, compared to 80p per 100g in Asda, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose (although these were pre-cooked packs).

The Basmati rice was cheaper when compared to branded products, such as Tilda’s (48p/100g in Sainsbury’s and Waitrose, or 40p/100g in Asda), plus it cooked really well.

Although the organic coffee beans were expensive (most supermarket coffee beans sell for just over £1 per 100g) the price was similar to other organic Fairtrade products and made an excellent coffee.

It’s also worth remembering these products have for the most part been ethically sourced too.

Using a hair soap bar

I decided to experiment by using a tea tree oil hair soap bar from the refill shop.

At £2.95, this was the one of the most expensive items I purchased but comparable to the price of other shampoos (£3.25 for 500ml of Head & Shoulders).

Using a bar to wash your hair is thought to be kinder to the environment as it reduces plastic use.

It’s also supposed to last many washes, with some soaps lasting for up to 80 washes. But Riddle warned me it was best to alternate its use between washes with my usual shampoo to get my hair used to it.

Unfortunately, I found it itchy, so I resorted to using it as a normal soap bar.

The refill shop does sell liquid shampoo and conditioner so next time I may try that instead. Some people also recommend using a vinegar rinse afterwards to help wash the soap off, which I may try next time.

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To refill or not to refill? The verdict

From this experiment, it looks unlikely I would save much money by buying my shopping from a refill shop besides on the odd item, such as lentils.

But if you tend to buy branded items already or shop in Sainsbury’s or Waitrose, the prices are not dissimilar.

Obviously, it’s not possible yet to get all your shopping from a refill shop as they are most useful for cupboard items, washing powder and ethical toiletries.

But the quality of the products in our local ones was excellent and, of course, the whole point of using a refill shop is not to save money but to help save the planet.

So, you can at shop in one knowing you are reducing plastic waste, supporting Fairtrade and local businesses trying to help the environment – and are also not spending much more than you would do in a supermarket.