HOW’S YOUR WEEK BEEN... JILLIAN ELIZABETH?

RETAILER PROFILE: JILLIAN ELIZABETH, THE LITTLE GREEN LARDER, DUNDEE

HOW’S YOUR WEEK BEEN...JILLIAN ELIZABETH?

IT’S BEEN AN INTERESTING FIRST YEAR IN HER ZERO WASTE SHOP IN DUNDEE BUT JILLIANELIZABETH IS HOPEFUL THAT THE PANDEMIC WILL SEE A GROWTH IN INTEREST IN ETHICALCONSUMPTION.

HOW’S YOU WEEK BEEN JILLIAN?

It’s been really positive, actually. Coronavirus has been tough for us but we’re finally getting back to business properly and the store’s starting to get busy again, which is great.

WHAT GAVE YOU THE IDEA TO OPEN A ZERO WASTE SHOP?

It’s a bit of an unusual story. I was actually a make-up artist for many years before I opened the shop. I specialised in wedding make-up but over the years I gradually become more aware of how much waste is created in that industry and it got me to thinking about what I could do to try to make a difference. So I ended up on a trip to New York and happened to visit a zero waste shop over there and I was fascinated. It was a non-food store but I immediately realised that this was something I wanted to do.

WHEN DID YOU OPEN THE LITTLE GREEN LARDER?

We first opened just over a year ago in July 2019. It really started because I was always looking for places where I could buy ethically sourced and healthy food for myself and I got a bit frustrated that there didn’t seem to be many outlets like that in Dundee. So I thought, why not open a zero waste store myself?

WAS IT EASY TO FIND A STORE?

It wasn’t too difficult. The site I ended up moving into had been a mortgage advice centre so it needed fully refitted but because I wanted a very specific look and feel for the shop, I knew that wherever I moved into would need a lot of work.

HOW HAS THE YEAR BEEN?

It’s been brilliant, it really has. From day one I didn’t want to be a little niche, specialist shop. I wanted to offer something for everyone. I quickly built a strong core customer base that would visit regularly but over the year I’ve seen more and more people visit and once they’ve been here once, they usually come back.

WHAT RANGES DO YOU OFFER?

It’s mostly food and drink with a little bit of non food that I feel is relevant. We do a full range of loose product including fruit and veg and lots of staples like pasta, rice, grains, nuts, lentils and beans. Customers can just bring their own containers and then buy as much as they need – so there’s no packaging waste. We also do products like Bombay mix, vegan pick and mix, oils, vinegars and so on and we do a range of Fairtrade and organic lines like chocolate. The non-food lines include a full range of environmentally friendly, cleaning and washing products plus we have everything from bamboo toothbrushes to t-shirts.

HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO STICK TO YOUR ETHICAL PRINCIPLES IN EVERY ASPECT OF THE STORE?

It’s not that difficult. We buy a lot of our stock from Greencity Wholefoods in Glasgow and they deliver that mostly in bulk, so we then just decant them into our dispensers. We try to buy fixtures or fittings we need for the store second-hand, so we do have some plastic gravity dispensers, for instance, but I got them second-hand on eBay. Oddly, there’s a huge demand for this kind of stuff on eBay so it tends not to very cheap to buy! We buy a lot of local product like fresh fruit and veg, to reduce food miles and because it’s the best in the world, and we also focus on products that are organic, Fairtrade, ethical traded and so on. Once you get your supply chain sorted out it’s not too difficult at all to keep the store stocked without having to compromise your principles.

I think what people have gone through in the last three or four months could well lead to an increase in ethical consumption.

HOW WAS CORONAVIRUS FOR YOU?

It was tough. We decided very early on that we had to close the store, but we maintained a click and collect service so that kept some money coming in and it kept our regular customers happy. The fact that we were about the only store in Dundee with rice and pasta at the start of lockdown helped ensure we still got a fair bit of custom in the early days. We also had plenty of hand sanitiser that we get in bulk from a local company, so that was popular too. Our customers really understood the challenges we were facing and they understood why we had to do what we did. We then re-opened about a month or so ago and it’s been a bit quieter than usual but it’s starting to build back up again, so fingers crossed. We’re close to an Art School, which is closed at the moment, but when that re-opens we should see some decent growth again.

DO YOU THINK THE PANDEMIC COULD ULTIMATELY BENEFIT YOUR BUSINESS?

I think what people have gone through in the last three or four months could well lead to an increase in ethical consumption. I think more people than ever are now interested in the impact they are having on the planet and are looking to be a bit more mindful about what they buy and where they buy it from.