By AMANDA DA SILVA
After operating 65 pop-up locations at various farmer’s markets throughout the city, bare market has opened up in Toronto’s east end.
The new package-free, one-stop shop recently opened its doors at 1480 Danforth Ave., just west of Coxwell Avenue.
“We noticed that there already were a lot of refill assets available in the west end,” bare market owner Dayna Stein said.
“In the east end there wasn’t as much of an access to refillable products and we also found there was a strong demand for what we were offering when we were doing our events in the east end of the city.”
At bare market, customers are offered a wide range of products from bath and beauty to home cleaning and kitchen, grocery to fresh baked goods.
Most of the store’s products are locally sourced. They also carry home and body products that are tested by a third-party cosmetic chemist, to make sure they are environmentally friendly and safe for human use.
As a package-free store, customers are encouraged to bring their own containers. This can be anything from recycled food containers, mason jars and even Ziplock bags. As long as they are clean, dry, and unchipped.
“We’re almost completely customer self-serve,” Stein said.
Customers can weigh their containers at one of three stations in the store, where they would place their empty container on a scale, and follow the instructions on the iPad connected to it. The customer will scan and then place a reusable wooden tag on their container that stores its weight so that the cashier can deduct that weight and it will not contribute to the total cost of product.
If shoppers happen to stop by without any containers, the bare market does have a borrowing system for a deposit fee.
They will return the deposit when the customer returns the container as long as they bring it back with the receipt, it is not chipped/damaged and it is cleaned and dry.
Customers can save anywhere from five to 65 per cent on body care and home care products compared to the same brands pre-packaged in a normal retail store, and on average the savings are from 20 to 45 per cent, said Stein.
“Our mission is to increase financial and physical access to package free goods,” Stein said.
For more information, please visit https://baremarket.ca/
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