Refilleries are popping up everywhere in Aberdeen; soon we’ll need two hands to count them all. A refillery is a type of grocery store that allows you to refill containers with food and cleaning products as a way to reduce single-use plastics. It’s heartening to see there’s increasingly more choice for consumers because it means the demand is there. It makes me feel all warm inside knowing so many people are trying hard to reduce their waste output.
Refillosophy has been open for about a year in Aberdeen but today is the first time I’ve visited. It really is a one-stop shop which makes it a bit of a stand-out in terms of refilleries. Often you still need to go to other shops to get all the things you need but refillosophy is big and stocks probably just enough variety that you could almost dispense with the supermarket. How nice would that be?
It stocks cleaning products, dried foods, bread, as well as fresh fruit and vegetables. There’s even a vegan milk stand with milk on tap – just bring an empty bottle and fill it up!
Minor Figures Oat M*lk is delicious and made in the UK.
You can find Refillosophy at 12-14 Albyn Grove. There’s bike parking just outside.
There’s also lots of yummy bakery things from Vegan Bay Baker like these chocolate donuts I bought today. They got a bit squashed in my bike on the way home but I can 100% vouch for their deliciousness. I will definitely be going back.
rachel.blog 
This is fascinating and very cool. How do they figure out the billing?
You weigh the empty container, then fill it up, then weigh it again. A machine then spits out the price. It’s kinda like weighing fruit at the supermarket. It’s very easy.
Ah, like restaurants that have you pay by weight. Smart.
A new BYO opened in Lewes this week. I am spoilt because the old one is only 5 minutes’ walk away and this one is 1 minute away. It doesn’t have the baked goods or fresh veg that Seasons does, as it is a much smaller shop. They do not have shopping baskets yet. “We’re working on it, we realise that would be a good idea,” was what they said. which was quite endearing. Maybe they didn’t realise that people like me can get quite a sizeable proportion of their total grocery needs in refill shops, and buy a lot of different things at once.
Fingers crossed that there will be more and more one-stop refilleries. It’s time-consuming having to shop at multiple shops for groceries. It’s not like the old days when women did it as part of the (unpaid) household management, because they didn’t work at a paid job. Of course, that was only some women of a certain class and income bracket – others still had to work and do all the household management, as well. Or chose to, in order to maintain their own thinking and financial independence. Anyway, good to see the beginning of one-stop refilleries 😊