Anyone who steps into Delicious Food on Amsterdam’s Westerstraat immediately notices that daily grocery shopping works differently here. No rows of flashy packaging or pre-cut vegetables in plastic. Here, it’s all about the sound of rattling dispensers and the aroma of freshly ground coffee beans. At this organic “slow-store,” right next to the Noordermarkt, you, the customer, decide everything yourself: from the grams of rice for your dinner to the exact amount of soap in the bottle you’ve brought along.
Pour, weigh, and grind it yourself
More than two hundred transparent dispensers filled with bulgur, pasta, nuts, tea, and herbs line the walls of the store. Visitors scoop their desired portions directly into paper bags and weigh their selections on a distinctive analog scale in the middle of the store.
Moreover, the packaging-free concept doesn’t stop at dry goods. In addition to fresh organic vegetables and artisanal bread, you can grind your own coffee beans in a professional grinder. Equipment is even available for household products. You can easily refill your own empty bottles with liquid hand soap or laundry detergent from large jerry cans.
Convenient for small households
Owners Bas and Hetty run the store as a conscious and peaceful alternative to the regular supermarket. Their goal? To build a strong connection with the neighborhood and to radically reduce packaging waste and food waste.
It’s precisely this self-serve system that makes the shop surprisingly popular. Whereas at the supermarket you’re often stuck with giant packages, here you can get exactly what you need—whether that’s three tablespoons of rare herbs or exactly one serving of lentils. No forced quantities, no unnecessary plastic, and above all: zero food waste.
At the register, owner Bas rings up the weighed paper bags with customers. The store at Westerstraat 24 thus offers a local alternative to the regular supermarket, where consumers are more mindful of quantities and packaging materials.
