I love the idea of shopping bulk! As a participant of Plastic Free July this year, I decided to drop in to my local bulk food store before buying from Coles or Woolies. I brought my own containers and the woman behind the counter weighed them for me and wrote the tare on them. I was able to buy most everything I needed in bulk here, which was really exciting. I bought organic red lentils, organic rolled oats, organic popping corn, and a little jar of raw organic cacao. The total for that shop was $36.
I went back a few days later to buy some organic acai powder. I bought one of the little jars from the shop, which was really handy.
I love the concept of this store, but there is a downside. The products are much more expensive than their packaged counterparts from Coles. I filled a little jar half way with acai powder, and it cost $15 (plus $2.50 for the little jar). The bulk bags they have available are $5 each. I am happy that bulk is becoming more accessible, but with prices like this, we still have a long way to go to make it accessible to the public - it will be hard to convince people to give up plastic in favor of bulk food when it's so much more expensive.
Nonetheless, I will continue to shop bulk as much as I can afford. I believe in voting with my dollar, and bulk food stores with organic foods is where its at! read more