CAPE TOWN, South Africa – Sherene Kingma and Paul Rubin are bringing forth a new way of going green in retail by encouraging customers to bring their own glass jars, containers or bags to shop their Cape Town, South Africa, Nude Food store. “[T]here’s no plastic packaging at Cape Town’s Nude Food store,” writes Business Day.
"Nude Foods was born out of frustration with the unnecessary amount of plastic packaging modern retailers insist on using. We got tired of waiting for someone else to open a plastic-free grocery store, so we did it ourselves," Rubin told the news source.
Inspired by zero-waste and bulk-food stores abroad, Nude Foods offers Capetonians an opportunity to fill their own containers with a variety of fresh and dried produce that is sold by weight. "Foods are overpackaged for convenience mostly—convenience for the retailer more than the customer. Packaged goods are easier to distribute and sell," Rubin says.
Rubin told the news source that Nude Foods is a "bright, natural and fun" store, where customers can buy staples like dry pantry goods like coffee and tea, spices, grains, cereal, beans, flours, sugar, nuts and seeds, dried fruit, and wet goods like oils, vinegars, tahini and honey. The store also sells household products like handmade soaps, eco-friendly cleaners, reusable jars and produce bags, bamboo toothbrushes and reusable beeswax wraps.
"We also plan on stocking a ready-to-eat range of foods including date balls, superfood snacks, salad jars, soup jars, cold-pressed juices, vegetarian rootis, nut milks and yoghurts," Rubin says, adding that most of what’s sold in the store is competitively priced, “a feat aided by the fact that 15% to 40% of the cost of packaged foods can be attributed to packaging,” notes the news source.
As for the future of Nude Food, Rubin says hopes to open a second store in Newlands in early 2018.
"We will also be exploring the possibility of a store-within-a-store concept with some existing larger retailers," he says, adding that since opening on December 6, the customer response has been overwhelming. “We had customers banging on the door while we were setting up, asking us for our opening date. Cape Town is clearly very ready for nude shopping.”