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