The New York Times – The Freshest Ideas Are in Small Grocery Stores – “As big supermarkets struggle, a new crop of local groceries are innovating to serve niche audiences and advance social causes…But some of the most radical reinvention is happening at the local level, in both cities and small towns, where a new breed of small community stores use the grocery aisles to fill cultural niches and address social needs..At Nada, everything, including toothpaste and chocolate, is sold package-free. Shoppers can buy scoops of frozen berries, a handful of crackers and just one egg, if that’s all they need. There’s no plastic wrap or paper at the deli counter. Customers bring their own containers, buy reusable ones at the store or take some from a stack that have been cleaned and sanitized, using a digital scale to weigh and tag them before they start shopping…” [Note – we need more innovative alternatives in as many communities as possible around the nation as many of these alternative grocery stores are solo projects]

As referenced in this article via CivilEats, Zero-Waste Stores Ask Shoppers to Bring Their Own Everything – “When you’ve never bought a produce bag before, you kind of have to build that habit,” says [Celia Ristow, who co-founded the advocacy group Zero Waste Chicago.] “But then it becomes second nature.” After all, low-waste shopping is not a new concept—it’s what grocery shopping looked like 100 years ago…” Developing and maintaining new habits that lower our personal and collective eco-footprints are critical, especially as we are living with accelerated examples of climate change which is exacerbated by a serious roll back of regulations that were engaged protect our water, air and land.