Day 5 and 6

Unfortunately, I didn't need to go grocery shopping these days because we helped my mum moving to another place and she prepared lunch and dinner for us. :-)

I decided to extend my self experiment because we still had some wrapped food from last week in the refridgerator and it didn't feel authentical for me because I used a lot of these already existing groceries.

Another reason why I extend it is the fact that I liked that we didn't have much waste this week. It is a good feeling and it needs to be repeated. :-)

Best regards,
Sophie

Day 4 - The Weekly Market in Neu Wulmstorf

I got up at about seven o'clock, took my bike and went to Neu Wulmstorf which is the next village and about 3 km away. My plan was to buy some meat and salad on the weekly market which opens every Wednesday and Saturday from 08:00 a.m. till 1 p.m.. I have never been at this weekly market before. It is just a small one but you can find friendly sellers and everything you need. At the butcher I bought some steaks and a few slices of meat loaf. It was possible to place my own storage boxes on the top of the counter to fill it with the groceries. The friendly seller told me that it wouldn't be allowed to take the boxes behind the counter, but the way to fill it on top of the counter is a legal way and there are no problems with the hygenic standards. She also told me that there are already lots of people who bring their own storage boxes to save on plastic bags and waste. I am happy to hear this.

The next stop was the fruit seller where I bought some lamb's lettuce. I was happy to get this kind of salad without any plastic, because it is my favourite one and it is impossible to buy it unwrapped at a common supermarket. I found it problematic to prepare the salad. Even after washing the salad two times, there was a lot of sand between our teeth while eating it. I´'m not used to it from the wrapped salad. You could think now that I'm a bit sensitive and fussy, but I really didn't  like it!! :-) That's why I have to be a lot more conscientious next time with washing the salad.

The day was a nice one and I could imagine to retry it.

Best regards from Sophie

Day 3

Day three was unspectular. My whole day was full of work and I didn't need to go grocery shopping. But the ham I bought yesterday was so yummy! :-)

Best regards,
Sophie

Day 2 - No Use of Storage Boxes at the Butcher

I visited a butcher in my neighbourhood to buy cooked ham, but it was not possible to buy meat in my own storage box because of hygenical reasons. The alternative was to wrap the ham in paper. I agreed but at home I realised that it isn´t paper. It is a material which looks and feels like thin plastic which is allegedly 100% recycable. I'm very sceptical if the recycable plastic is as good as it appears to be.

Best regards
Sophie

Day 1 - "Unverpackt"-Store in Kiel

Yesterday was the first day of the self experiment, because Monday was a public holiday and there was no chance to buy some food. Temur and I stroke off to Kiel to visit the "Unverpackt"-Store. Our train from Hamburg was going to go at 9:43 a.m. and everything seemed to be well organised because Temur was on time, I was on time and the ticket machine didn´t let us down. I was just wondering why on the large display panel at the railwaystation I couldn´t see Kiel as one of the intermediate stops of our train to Flensburg. But I didn´t think about that problem any longer because I took it for granted that a train to Flensburg would stop in Kiel (both in the north of Germany). But as you can imagine it didn't. After 1 hour and 15 minutes I started realizing that we could be in the wrong train. We tried to use Google Maps to locate our position but the mobile reception was too bad to show us where we were. After the time of our scheduled arrival passed, we realised that we are definitely on the wrong train and we decided to go to Flensburg and then from Flensburg to Kiel. Fortunately, there was a train just 15 minutes after our arrival and we were finally on the right track.

Visiting the shop was fun. I have never seen a grocery store like this.
On the walls are big dispensers for grains, flour, noodles, rice, cereals, pulses, baking ingredients (oh no, right now it comes to my mind that I forgot to buy natron), sweets, dry fruits, spices and coffee.

Even detergents and soap are available.

 

It took some time to explore the store, but it was so interesting and funny. We compared some prices and even could arrange a short interview with the owner of the shop, Marie Delaperrière. The interview will be published in a few days.

To buy the food you can buy glass containers and fabric bags or you bring your own boxes and bags with you. I brought some jam pots and storage boxes with me.

I bought some peanuts with wasabi, carrots, dried mulberries and quark. Especially, the curd was very important for me because I have never found curd in glass in a usual supermarket. I didn't need to buy vegetables, because I can buy them unwrapped in my local store. Unfortunately, it was not possible to buy meat or cheese (just a very small choice), because it is necessary to have a special concession for it. That is why I have to go grocery shopping again today after I wrote this blog entry.

Reviewing our visit at the store I can say that it is lots of fun and it is possible to buy unusual grains and ingredients which are not available even plastic wrapped in conventional stores. The prices are a bit higher than in the supermarket but not more expensive than on the weekly market or an organic grocery store. If I would live in or near Kiel I could definitely imagine to go there regularly. But at the moment I have to find alternatives here in Hamburg until we have the same kind of stores. I expect to have them in a few months, because Marie told us that three years ago she was the first to open a store like this in Germany and that at this moment there are about 20 new ones in Germany.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article and maybe you can share your experiences with this kind of stores.

Best regards

Sophie

Suss things out

Good evening.

In the last days we went to some supermarkets to suss things out. We compared prices of plastic wrapped food with the prices of the same food which is packed in glas, cardboard or which is not wrapped. I think about publishing a list which contains these products and their prices. Even if I already assumed that plastic wrapped groceries are cheaper than not plastic wrapped ones, I was surprised how great the price differences sometimes are. For example you can buy limes for € 1,79 in a pack of six. This is about € 0,29 per piece. But in a box next to the plastic wrapped pack of limes there where exactly the same unwrapped limes for the price of € 0,39 per piece.
And often there was no chance to buy a product unwrapped. For example we didn´t find any lamb´s lettuce, broccoli or chinese cabbage unwrapped.
During our visits at the supermarkets we also asked the seller at the deli counter if it would be possible to give her a storage box from home to fill it with the meat or cheese. Just one of three sellers agreed directly to our concern. The other two told us, that it is not allowed because of hygenical reasons. It will be interesting next week how they react if I have the boxes with me in reality and try to buy some meat or cheese.
And suddenly there was something unexpected happening. When we asked one of the deli counter sellers about our storage box concern a young man was also interested in this issue and mentioned that he also would like to buy his meat in storage boxes to avoid plastic waste if it would be possible. I was surprised and happy at the same time. It seems that there are more people interested in this issue and they are directly next to us... in the supermarket, in the subway and in our house. We just have to speak to each other and find it out.

Did you already try to go grocery shopping with a storage box at the deli counter? I would be very interested in your experiences!

Best regards
Sophie