At the very time when the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE) is urging Quebec to reduce its waste at source, many zero-waste stores, whose mandate is exactly that, are suffering from revenue cuts and to close their doors. On a Wednesday afternoon, in the LOCO grocery store in Verdun, a customer dropped some pasta on the floor while trying to fill her Mason jar.
“That still happens often,” admits Andréanne Laurin, co-founder and general manager of the banner, which has four branches in Montreal. She explains that people can bring any container and weigh it on a scale at the entrance.
They have a multitude of bulk foods to choose from, from flour to vegetables to canola oil, as well as household products, personal soaps and reusable items. “At the checkout, we weigh again and deduct the weight of the empty jar”, describes Mme Lauren. Here, packaging is kept to a minimum.
From the start of the pandemic, LOCO grocery stores suffered a 25% to 30% drop in sales. And they haven’t come back since. Founder of the Association of Zero Waste Ecological Groceries, Ms.me Laurin notes that the majority of her colleagues experience the same difficulties.
“At the beginning, there were messages that said to go to one place to do all your shopping quickly. But we don’t have everything. We don’t have a lot of processed foods, for example. You also have to take the time to fill your containers,” says the entrepreneur, who surveyed her clientele to understand their new habits.
Many people were afraid of the sanitary aspect of bulk foods. Faced with the daily challenges of the pandemic, many citizens have also reduced their environmental efforts. They opted for the nearest grocery stores, rather than those that most closely matched their value.
LOCO was able to survive on wage subsidies and rent from the federal government. But other shops weren’t so lucky. In the last year, the number of eco-responsible stores has decreased in Quebec, according to several observers.
Heartbreaking closures
Bokal grocery stores are among the missing. Just before the pandemic, a small store in Chambly was so successful that its owner, Valérie Sirois, was working on a much larger, 12,000 square foot version with a full grocery store, ready-to-eat and restaurant section. But shortly before the scheduled opening, the pandemic reached Quebec.
Mme Sirois and his business partners had to review the concept to play it safe. “It was bulk that we served to customers. They could no longer serve themselves. So you pay people more to help them. Some customers were not satisfied with this way of working,” says the businesswoman.
During this time, she closed the small Bokal store to devote herself to the big project. But by the spring of 2021, she had exhausted her financial resources.
“When it starts to affect your psychological health, that you can’t pay your suppliers, you can’t go on like this forever,” explains Ms.me Sirois. I miss the customers, the employees, the possibilities before us to change things. »
Commercial initiatives aimed at reducing at source, more broadly, have lost ground. The Zero Waste Circuit allows merchants to display, through a Web platform, that they accept the use of reusable containers. However, it will cease operations in April. Its founder, Cindy Trottier, says she has lost about 80 businesses in the past year due to their closure. Several stores have also stopped offering bulk products or accepting containers brought by customers.
Public interest would also have declined. “We had 300 to 360 users a day before the pandemic, and now I barely have 900 people a month,” she says.
Take back lost ground
Defenders of the zero waste movement are not giving up, however. They are standing together to recover the ground lost during the pandemic.
Several organizations, in collaboration with the Direction régionale de santé publique de Montréal, published in October the Guide to good sanitary practices in food for the management of containers and other reusable objects. The objective is to reassure businesses and consumers about the possibility of favoring bulk in a safe manner.
For its part, the Quebec Zero Waste Association (AQZD) is asking the government to support companies that are dedicated to reducing at the source, since there is no program that targets them directly. They can benefit from certain calls for projects from Recyc-Québec, but in a clearly insufficient way, according to Magali Simard, responsible for partnerships and professional membership at the AQZD.
“If we want to stay strong and avoid further closures, now is the time to act,” says the general manager of LOCO grocery stores.
Mme Laurin is convinced that the concern of citizens for their ecological footprint is once again becoming a priority. They will set foot in her stores again as the health emergency subsides, she believes, and she wants to continue to be there to accompany them.