You may be familiar with the businesses that offer cheap refills of drinking water. It's the viable substitute for those families who want safe drinking water, but who can't afford the 5-gallon bottles from major established suppliers.
Those water refilling depots are usually set up by the neighbours right down the street from where you live - who supposedly have some kind of filter, and the only requirement is that you bring your own 5-gallon bottle to fill up.
Well, one entrepreneur has decided to expand to model, but instead of water refills, she wants Belizeans to embrace the idea of refilling your household products like hand soap, dishwashing liquid, laundry detergents, and even dried goods like cereals, corn flakes, and pasta.
Today, she invited the press to take a peek at the grocery refill operation that she is launching. 7News stopped by to find out about the Shop Now Belize Refill Station. Daniel Ortiz reports:
This business located at #1743 Coney Drive in Belize City, is called Shop Now Belize.
When it first opened, owner, Adette Tillett, specialized in the sale of clothing and footwear with some home decor. But, Covid hard times has prompted her to expand her offerings to include a refilling station.
Adette Tillett - Owner, Shop Now Belize "It's a zero-waste refilling station that will allow our clients to bring us their empty containers, and we will refill them. We are able to refill for you your hand soap, your dishwashing liquids, your all-purpose cleaners, your laundry detergent, your fabric softeners, you're bleach, your oils, as well as your dried goods, which includes your pasta, your cereals. So, what we're hoping is that we're offering an alternative to retail shopping for Belizeans. You're able to refill what you can afford. For example, if you come to us and say, ‘I can only afford to buy x fluid ounces of the product', we're able to sell you that. Whatever it is that your budget can afford at any particular time, we will be able to accommodate you."
This idea was born out of a need to ensure that Tillett's business place remains commercially viable in these tough financial times.
Adette Tillett "The economy has slowed down as we all know. And so, small businesses like myself have to become creative in order to survive. For us to do that, we decided that we needed to diversify the products that we were selling. But we didn't want to just sell the regular products. We wanted to offer Belizeans an option to stretch their dollar and get value for every cent they were spending. And so, it took a lot of research to finally decide on the refilling station, and then, we had to source those items. I consulted with the Bureau of Standards. I spoke to local retailers and local producers, to try to see if I could incorporate local products in what I'm trying to do. I had to find different suppliers. All the suppliers that I'm using are in the States. So, I had to source those items."
Everything's in place now and she's welcoming customers for a different shopping experience.
Adette Tillett "So, you walk in, and you want to buy hand soap for example. You've brought us your empty hand soap container, and you're saying to us, I want to refill this item', and you tell us what you're able to pay. So, whatever your budget is for that particular item is what we will refill for you. We're offering prices as low as a millilitre of liquid. We're offering an ounce for the dried goods."
An important feature of this refilling station is Tillett's decision is to offer high-quality household products at a reduced price to give consumers a win-win value proposition:
Adette Tillett "The whole idea was to reduce prices. So, I sourced items that were high quality, but cheaper to allow me to have them landed in Belize at a price that I would be able to offer between 83 cents to a dollar and twenty cents on average price savings for everything that you're buying from us. When you buy an item that is in a particular container, you're paying for that container. What we've done is we've stripped away that container. We've stripped away that branding. Even though across the store you're seeing the brand of the items that we sell, but we're not selling it to you every time you purchase an item. So, by refilling, you using your existing containers, and we're selling you the content of those containers. And that's why we're able to save you within 83 cents to a dollar and twenty cents for you to be able to get the content of these items."
But it's not charity, there is still a markup. so, we wondered how she gets around the popular retail loop of buying cheap and selling for the highest price possible:
Adette Tillett "It doesn't impact me because I don't buy individual items. I'm buying in bulk. I'm buying in in 5-gallons. I'm buying by the drums. So, those individual prices that you would have paid for individual packaging, I don't have those. I'm paying for bulk packaging, and that's the reason why I'm able to offer the pricing that I'm currently offering."
Shop Now Belize's refilling station is operational, and you can find it at #1743 Coney Drive.
