It costs more for now. As it becomes the norm, I think we'll see many innovations and new strategies come to fruition.
I specifically like the idea of zero waste stores where you bring your own containers to fill. Not only do you eliminate waste, reusable and sealable containers are so much nicer than what most products come in.
I am very confident this is the case. When we have a well-oiled culture of reuse it will be easy and cheap to just show up with your various containers and do your shopping.
Labor is the biggest expense for businesses, and anything that increases number of man hours means higher costs.
Plastic wrapped items make it very easy for customers to shop themselves with minimal interaction from staff and for the store to still guarantee cleanliness standards. I can only imagine that people coming in with their own containers will require more staff to follow proper protocols in dispensing items and whatnot, resulting in higher costs.
Maybe even take it a step further and have standardized containers that you can drop off when you go shopping in exchange for clean ones and use those. The ones you dropped off can be sent off to a facility to deep clean them, similar to how beer bottles work.
A grocery store I used to live near had a hookup like this with a local dairy farm for their glass bottle milk. iirc returning the bottle also got you like $.25 off the next gallon at checkout.
> I specifically like the idea of zero waste stores where you bring your own containers to fill. Not only do you eliminate waste, reusable and sealable containers are so much nicer than what most products come in.
How would the food arrive at the store?
I used to buy food from a store with bulk bins. The store has a program where you can order the bags that they fill the bins from and pick those up directly--strong paper bags, usually around 25lbs. Lately I've found a mill and some other businesses nearby sell these bags of locally grown staple foods. By switching to the "upstream" bags, I've been able to choose local farms I want to support, nearly eliminate going to the supermarket (for produce I have a small, nearly-wild garden and do some foraging), and pay less for fresher food. Would it be possible to eliminate the 25lb bags from the loop? Probably, but they definitely reduce the friction of buying their contents, and they're made from a small amount (square-cube law) of material that makes a good sheet mulch.
I specifically like the idea of zero waste stores where you bring your own containers to fill. Not only do you eliminate waste, reusable and sealable containers are so much nicer than what most products come in.