Ventura shop has got the goods; clients can bring their own bottlesA refilling niche
— Allison Bruce (VC Star)
Recycling has become commonplace, but the owner of a new Ventura store is hoping people start thinking more about the “reuse” part of the equation.
The Refill Shoppe opened on Main Street in Ventura in July, offering an alternative to recycling bottles of shampoo, conditioner, window cleaner, laundry detergent and other products — instead offering a way to refill them.
Owner Michelle Stevens calls her business “fun green.” It’s a way to stop throwing out bottles each month and still have the benefit of something like lavender peppermint shampoo made with mostly organic ingredients.
“I wanted to offer a better way,” she said.
Customers can pump out what they need into bottles she sells, or bring in their clean bottles and fill them up. Stevens weighs them and sells each product by the ounce.
The shampoo, lotions, cleaners and other products are unscented. Customers can pick out essential oils that Stevens mixes in. The oils are included in the price. Stevens said she tried to keep the pricing simple, so people would have some idea of the cost.
Her products are more expensive than some brands but less expensive than others. The shampoo costs $7.50 for 16 ounces.
Stevens, a graduate of Brooks Institute, has used her photographer’s eye in setting up the shop, with its rows of colorful glass bottles and diffused lighting. She stocked the store with finds from Craigslist and had the counter custom-made out of a bed frame.
She tries to adhere to the values of reusing and recycling to cut waste generated by the business, selling the buckets her products arrive in and offering the cardboard shipping boxes on Craigslist.
She’s relying on word of mouth, and the store’s Facebook page now has more than 350 fans.
Katie Kosmala and Leon Simmonds, of Oak View, were at the store on a recent weekend with Bella, 6, and Leon, 8, filling up glass and plastic bottles they had saved with everything from Castile soap to shampoo. Stevens was stirring drops of essential oils into each container.
Kosmala said she found out about The Refill Shoppe on Facebook.
“If everybody starts doing this, we’ll have less waste,” she said. “This is where we should be headed.”
She said it also was nice knowing she could get products that were safe for her family in one place, talking about the challenge of reading labels on various bottles at the drugstore to avoid certain ingredients.
Going mainstream
Buying in bulk has grown in popularity both with the economic downturn and a growing aversion to unnecessary packaging.
The Bulk is Green Council, an industry group that supports bulk food purchasing, reported bulk food sales increased an estimated 15 percent in 2009 from 2008 and would continue to grow this year.
As Stevens found, bulk sales of household products aren’t as easy to find, which offered a niche she could fill.
The economy has made people more aware of how much money they spend on things, which is driving an interest in bulk purchases, along with environmental concerns, said Tea Silvestre, who owns Social Good Consulting, a Ventura-based firm that helps socially conscious businesses and organizations.
Bulk became popular during the last big recession, when companies like Costco started, and the co-op community has a history of offering products like shampoo and soap in bulk, Silvestre said. Reuse can be seen as far back as the Great Depression, when people would save bottles or bags, she said.
“Recycling and reusing, it comes from periods of time where we have to be really conscious of what we’re doing,” she said. “More and more, people realize the Earth’s resources are not unlimited. We need to get as much value from everything as we can and not be wasteful.”
When Silvestre started her business in 2006, she said, the idea of “green” wasn’t mainstream yet. That has changed.
“I really hope it’s more than just the trend,” Stevens said. “People as a whole need to start thinking and living a little differently.”
Gift triggered the idea
Stevens took a leap of faith in opening The Refill Shoppe. She had the idea for the store back in December when she received a pretty bottle to hold olive oil and thought about having to buy another bottle of oil to fill it. She knew there were already local companies offering olive oil refills, but it started her thinking about other products people use daily.
Even in a recession, people still need shampoo and conditioner, she said.
When the Main Street storefront became available, she moved to make it happen. It’s been a learning experience, and she continues to rely on the help of an accountant who was one of her instructors at Brooks.
She and a friend once had a mobile business in Florida where people could paint their own pottery, but Stevens said owning an actual retail store is different. But she’s glad she took the leap.
“Life is so short,” she said. “It’s important to live consciously and put your life energy into something you believe in.”
© Paul Gomez/Gray Box Studios 2010