Freedom is about buying the amount you need

Type of practice Reduce

Name of practice Freedom is about buying the amount you need

Name of main actor Granel

Type of actor(s) Company

Location Spain

Stage of implementation Retail

Year of implementation 2011

What was/is being done? Granel is a chain of stores in Spain where customers can buy any kind of cereal, dry fruit, spice, pasta, rice, honey, soap, oil, etc., mainly in bulk. The concept of the shop is very simple: just buy what you need not what they want you to buy (minimum amount of 5 grammes). Customers choose if they want 20 g, 200 g or 2 kg, according to what they plan to cook and what they can afford. In a normal market, one can only choose between two or three sizes, while the choice when buying in bulk is unlimited. The customers of this shop range from environmentally aware people who want to eat healthy and with little packaging, to victims of the economic crisis in Spain who can buy more variety with fewer resources thanks to this flexible system. For the price of 1 kg of rice in a traditional supermarket, in Granel they can buy 250 g of rice, some herbs, a bit of olive oil, some dried tomatoes and mushrooms, 250 g of muesli for breakfast and some dry fruits such as locally sourced almond.

Outcomes and impacts The waste generated with this system is really low or zero. By buying only what one needs, this system avoids a lot of food wastage, considering that 60 percent of food waste is caused by bad planning when shopping. In addition, the optional packaging offered by Granel is minimal and fully recyclable or compostable or customers can bring their own packaging to do proper Zero Waste shopping. Saving on packaging material and food itself saves natural resources, avoids GHG emissions, saves water and land and preserves biodiversity.