PAX - sustainable eco grocery in Westport
KENTUCKIAN Mckinley Neal was shocked when she moved to Ireland from Germany at the level of ‘unnecessary’ packaging she found on our supermarket shelves, writes Tom Gillespie.
To counter single-use resources like plastic and paper and encourage the reuse of materials, she and business partner Kirstin McDonagh opened a whole foods and eco goods sustainable outlet at the bottom of Market Lane in Westport in December last. And business is brisk.
Customers can dispense the amount they need into their own containers of any shape or size, of any type of material – containers are weighed before and after filling to subtract the weight of the container from the total weight of produce purchased.
Their organic grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, dried fruit, baking ingredients, herbs, spices, blended tea, coffee, oil, vinegar, liquid sweeteners and other condiments, as well as shampoo and conditioner, hand and body wash, face and body cream and various household cleaning products, are proving highly popular.
Mckinley, the mother of two young girls, told me how the business, Whole Foods PAX & Eco Goods, came about: "It was something that I was interested in as I lived in Germany before I moved to Ireland.
"When I moved here I started going to the supermarkets where I saw all of the packaging that I did not have to deal with in Germany. It was a real shocker. So the first thing I did for my family was to order an organic vegetable box that was delivered with returnable packaging.
"But there was no way to get other things without packaging. It was something I was thinking about because I wanted to change careers.
"Kirstin, for several years, has sold at the country markets. She made seaweed breads and granola. We got to talking as I was a customer there. I would take my own containers and have people fill them there. I was one of the only people doing it.
"We started chatting about that and we had coffee one day and we talked about a business idea I shared with her and it was very similar to what she was thinking. So that is how we set it up."
Mckinley went on: "We call our business a sustainable grocery or a minimal waste shop where we minimise the packaging that we pass on to the consumer.
"I do all of the sourcing so it was my passion to get as many organic items as possible. Compared to continental Europe there is not nearly as much organic produce in Ireland."
They have two major suppliers of bulk food products. One is Irish and the other English, which has them thinking about the effects of Brexit.
She added: "We are starting to look at other continental suppliers because it is not easy to get everything in Ireland. We import things from all over the world. We get things to us in 25kg paper bags so we can recycle them.
“We sell all the products to customers unpackaged. They can bring any containers they have. If someone doesn’t have one we have a home section of clean items and jars that people can use as well as paper bags. The idea is to keep things in circulation as long as possible before they get recycled or thrown in landfill."
Porridge and rice are the big sellers. "People bring their old porridge bags from the supermarket," Mckinley said, "and fill them up here.
"We carry a mix of nuts and seeds but these are a bit more expensive. But it is really good value to refill. Even though all of our stuff is organic, the porridge is cheaper, most of the rice is cheaper and everything is really good quality.
"When a customer comes in with a container we weigh it first and we stick a printed label on the container so the next time they come in we don’t have to weigh it again. Then they fill away into the jars with funnels to make sure there is no spillage and we weigh it again. Another label is printed out which we scan at the till. We have gone for a very high-tech solution compared to other shops to make sure our system is efficient, especially at the weekends when we are busy."
Mckinley said they are delighted with way things are going. "We have a cohort of regulars that we see on a weekly basis, if not more often. We have people coming in out of curiosity. We have more people from Castlebar coming here recently as well as people from Clare, Galway and Sligo. As part of our business model we want to do some education with the message ‘before you recycle an item use it a lot’.
"All of these plastics are designed to last a long time and we are just throwing them away after just one use.
"We try to be responsive to customer needs as well. We have got a lot of requests for different items so we are always adding new products. We got some dried mango recently and cacao butter wavers that people use to make their own chocolate or face creams."
The customer-friendly containers in PAX came from Germany and are proving very effective at preventing cross-contamination and are approved by the HSE.
The cleaning products, too, are very popular, with customers bringing in their own containers and filling up with washing-up liquid, shampoos and conditioners.
Mckinley admitted: "We are cheaper for refilling nearly everything even though our stuff is organic. The only thing that is more expensive are our organic nuts."
Kirstin, who owns Quay Cottage in Westport, said: "Once we spoke about the project it took us nine months to get it off the ground. People heard about it before we even opened. We finally decided we had to take the newspapers off the windows and open. When we did the floodgates opened. It was total panic for the first few days.
"Early adopters, people who were willing to shop plastic-free, were our first customers and they spread the word."
PAX is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. but as Mckinley admitted: "We are already talking about opening Mondays but as we go into summer I’m sure we will be open seven days.”
Whole Foods PAX & Eco Goods, Market Lane, Westport, can be contacted on (098) 44606 or paxshopwestport@gmail.com.
Do you have a story to tell about your business? If so, Tom Gillespie would be delighted to hear from you. Get in touch at (087) 9680780 or gillespietom49@gmail.com.