A good scoop

PERHAPS IT’S NOT well known outside France but Grenoble is actually where the French Revolution started. And this city, o en regarded as the capital of the Alps, seems to have retained this progressive spirit ever since. Nowadays it’s home to numerous tech companies, more than 60,000 students and has a Green party mayor who was once rumoured to be plotting to replace the council’s polluting lawn mowers with goats.

It’s little wonder then that despite the country’s staunch food traditionalism, this is the place you would nd a retailer like La Bonne Pioche.

The name literally translates to ‘good pick’. It’s an expression you might hear during a card game, but in this case it’s a nod to the shop’s bulk re ll format – akin to the zero-waste stores and sections that have gained popularity in the UK.

In some ways, the interior will look quite familiar to British retailers. The 700sq shop oor features all of the vats, silos and scoops you’d expect to see, as well as a cheese counter and a display of fresh fruit and vegetables –plus the obligatory loaves of bread stacked on shelves behind the till.

The variety of stock spans the full spectrum, from everyday items like eggs and dairy, through to treats, like cooked meals and cake. You’ll even nd plenty of non-food, such as cleaning products and plantable greeting cards. It would be certainly be possible to do a weekly shop here if you wanted to.

The structure behind this business is just as all-encompassing as the o er on the shop oor. La Bonne Pioche is a SCOP (société coopérative de production, or worker cooperative), of which each of the ve partners are equal shareholders and salaried employees. Decisions are made democratically, and a percentage of pro ts is shared fairly between associates and non-associate employees, with the remainder reinvested back into the business.

The idea is to create a company which is fair and gives stakeholders a shared sense of responsibility without the hierarchical structure of traditional businesses, and is sustainable in that it is nancially viable.

“We are keen to remain as horizontal as possible,” associate Elsa Normandon tells FFD,

“so that everyone feels involved, employee or partner. The advantage of a SCOP is that our working tools are our own: we decide how to run and operate our company”.

Originally founded in 2015, the shop has changed hands from the two founders to ve current partners – Elsa Normandon, Matthias Charre, Gwennaïg Gaborit, Léa Mercier-Faivre, and Rodolphe Arnaud.

On top of the day-to-day running of the shop, they each have their own set of responsibilities, varying from HR and hygienic compliance through to accounts and business development.

This decision-making process is informed by a charter that contains seven principles: nurturing strong bonds with local producers; quality and provenance of products; being a low-waste organisation; setting fair prices; stocking ethical products; ensuring products are complementary; and involvement in local, socially and ecologically bene cial initiatives.

Some of these principles are easy enough to satisfy, purely through decent retailing practice. To ensure everything they stock is of a high standard, the associates taste-test products,

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Average basket spend: renoble e lan

Annual turnover: m m and they look at them from a nutritional perspective.

“If we are unanimous about the quality of a product, that’s a good sign,” Charre tells FFD, “and then we rely on customer feedback.”

The low-waste criteria that La Bonne Pioche adheres demand a slightly more specialised retailing approach, though.

For a start, they don’t like to use the word zero-waste because, as Normandon says, it’s not strictly accurate. “We still produce some waste, but we try our best to limit it.”

Addressing it has required some e ort both at the producer end and at the shopper end.

“With our customers,” Charre says, “we try to raise awareness about bringing reusable containers.”

“We also have work to do on the producer side, to convince them to reduce waste by selling to us in bigger vessels or bags, or in reusable receptacles. But that also depends on geographic proximity, whether they deliver to us or use carriers.”

They do sell some receptacles and cotton bags and give cra bags away. This is partly because when they tried to manage a circular system themselves, it didn’t work from a storage or hygiene perspective.

With every decision, the associates try to tick as many boxes on their charter as possible, making only rare exceptions – namely, on buying locally. As of last year, they have limited these exceptions to items they already stock: co ee, tea, citrus fruit and cocoa.

“For example, when it came to citrus fruits, we had to weigh up the pros and the cons as a group, because they don’t come from France but from Andalusia,” says Charre. “In this case, it meets our charter guidelines in that we’re supporting a small, organic producer, in a region dominated by intensive agriculture.”

“We concluded that if we didn’t sell citrus fruits, our customers would buy them in supermarkets anyway, so they might as well buy them from us knowing that they come from controlled, small plots and cooperative producers. We feel there is legitimacy to selling them knowing that we were sure of the quality, ethics and provenance, rather than people buying them elsewhere.”

Even though they do hold themselves to their principles, the associates have curated an impressive range of products, so much so that customers could make it their one-stop shop.

The bulk store staples are all there: rice, beans, and cereal; fruit and vegetables; olive oil, laundry detergent and washing up liquid. But there are apéritif snacks, biscuits, cakes, chocolate and sweets, too. Then there are also eggs and cheese, cream and ice cream, bread and pastries, alcoholic and so drinks. What isn’t sold in bulk comes in receptacles which are either returnable, reusable or compostable.

There are toothbrushes with reusable heads, which customers can bring back, as well as chewable toothpaste tablets and re llable, biodegradable oss. Other non-food lines include reusable cutlery kits, fabric co ee lters and teabags, wooden children’s toys and kitchen utensils. There are even (locally made) leather ip- ops.

Despite the shop’s focus on low waste, it isn’t the draw for all customers, Charre says. “They might consistently come for eggs, co ee and apples. Like all consumers, according to their budget, they might think, ‘well this is more expensive, but I want to get it for the quality’.”

“Other people might want to support several local businesses, or others come for geographic reasons, because we’re on their route home and they might just want a bag of apples to cycle home with.”

Whether via shopping habits or otherwise, it’s hard to de ne the typical customer at La Bonne Pioche.

Seasonal and local fruits and vegetables

Fresh products including yoghurts, dairy products and cheese

Unprocessed basic products including pasta, flour, sugar, rice and cereals

Elsa Normandon: ergamot-flavoured sheep’s milk yoghurts made in Vaulnaveys, La Ferme de la Bermotine

Gwennaïg Gaborit: Ginger beer, Kombuch’Alpes

Léa Mercier-Faivre: Local soap, Nous Le Savons

Matthias Charre: Semi-complete pasta made in Grenoble, Les pâtes d’Alice

Rodolphe Arnaud: Liqueur du Vercors, Distillerie l’Entropie

Joy On A Plate

“We really do get a bit of everything –di erent ages, di erent backgrounds”, says Normandon, but there is always more to be done to be more inclusive and accessible. As of last year, they’ve been o ering a 10% student discount, and recently scrapped a spend-based discount scheme for a straight 10% discount, available to anyone who needs it.

“If their nances are a bit tight, temporarily or permanently, especially when it comes to their food spend, but they still want to shop with us, customers can just ask for it,” says Charre. “Compared with the big multiples, we’re still looking at higher prices, but we’re trying to improve that accessibility element.”

Being fair to customers is one priority, but another is to support their suppliers. “We never negotiate with our suppliers”, says Normandon. “We play with our margins, which are around 30% – not huge compared with similar businesses.”

This is a balancing act all retailers can relate to. Just like in the UK, the price of food has risen considerably in the past year. Keeping prices reasonable, paying their suppliers well and nding enough to cover their own wages can be tricky.

So far though, customers haven’t turned away from them when they have had to put prices up. In fact, loyal returning customers are what keep La Bonne Pioche going. As well as strong engagement with their campaigns and social media channels, Normandon says a good illustration of this is popularity and high open rates for their monthly email newsletters – a mixture of updates, special o ers and recipes.

“We also put items on there to pre-order every month which we can’t necessarily stock in the shop because of the bulk model – like pu pastry, or tofu. We don’t want people diving into a big vat of it with a pair of tongs.”

“We get 100 orders every month just from the newsletter.”

Many customers are even more involved, having contributed to crowdfund the shop when it opened.

“The original owners raised a bit of money for some of the equipment and fees. Behind this was the idea of forging a relationship with the people who contributed, to create a community of people who feel involved in the life of the shop,” says Normandon.

“And we really do feel like we have an amazing customer base behind us, who support our choices and our project.”

Earlier this year, the team ran a second funding campaign – which 250 people took part in –to help fund a second shop, located further up the valley, in a town called Meylan.

The site is just slightly smaller, and is di erent in that it has a foodservice o ering and parking.

The idea of having another store wasn’t on their radar, but too many stars aligned at once.

“It really wasn’t an idea we were pursuing at the time,” says Charre, “quite the contrary. We even decided against moving the shop to another location to concentrate on making adjustments there.”

“But then we thought of all the producers we visit and how what they do always has an impact on us when we leave. The work they do is colossal. So we thought, seeing as we’re doing an okay job in Grenoble, we have a loyal customer base and a great team, let’s seize this opportunity to support our producers.”

With two fewer associates than they had earlier this year, there has been more for them to consider – such as nding new local fresh food suppliers, and hiring six people – but so far, it’s proving to be a success. The shop has met its commercial targets, with a mix of existing customers and locals.

The foodservice o er, consisting of four outdoor tables, a co ee machine and a menu of simple cooked dishes also gives it a separate edge.

“It’s not going to be a cash cow. We’re not a restaurant, but it’s enough.”

Having a second location itself has also reaped bene ts.

“We had customers who struggled to come to Grenoble by bike, it’s more accessible for them here because they can drive.”

Feedback has also been positive, from both committed bulk-buyers and more casual customers.

And that is the beauty of places like La Bonne Pioche. They serve as proof that what can seem like a radical concept, given the right context, can thrive. labonnepiochegrenoble.com