Jouw Dagelijkse Kost - sustainable groceries

In today’s market, there is a more to the businesses than the price. Customers want to know where the products come from and what kind of values the stores have. Jouw Dagelijkse Kost is a great example of this, a local grocery store that focuses on sustainability and minimizing waste which attracts like-minded customers.

We had the pleasure to interview the founder of Jouw Dagelijkse Kost and find out more about their background and business.

Can you please introduce yourself?

I am Ronnie Uithof, and together with my partner Monique started with this establishment 3.5 years ago. I grew up in a grocery store so opening a store was always a dream of mine. Before opening my own store, I worked for Achmea (the insurance company). We started off with a small pop-up store in Zaailand, the shopping mall in Leeuwarden, for 3 days. People were so enthusiastic that we did another small pop-up store a year later, but this time the pop-up store lasted for 6 months. In October 2019, we moved into our first ‘physical’ building.

Can you please explain the concept of your store in a few sentences? And are there any difficulties you face with this unique concept?

The concept is simple: we aim to be a local based grocery store with good nutrition of the food with the least amount of packaging waste possible. However, maintaining this kind of concept is not easy. We can’t be there for everyone, because the price of the products we sell is a bit higher than in the normal grocery stores like the Albert Heijn, Aldi and Eko Plaza. Our prices are based on fair pricing; so everyone gets a fair amount of the total cut: The farmer, the transporter and the shopkeeper.

Why is sustainability important for you?

Sustainability is our number one driving factor. We try to pack our products with the smallest amount of materials possible, so the amount of waste that people have from unpacking the products will stay the minimum. We’re also local-based, so people don’t have to drive a lot of kilometers before visiting us. I am a firm believer that customers have the right to know where the products are coming from and how they are made and I am always happy to explain it to them and why I think people should become (more) sustainable. By only selling products that are good for the earth, I hope to leave a positive footprint.

How do you find and come up with products?

A lot of products we just find by coincidence. It starts often with recommendations from other buyers on where to buy good priced and locally based products. We also let people find us: If they think their products fit our needs and meet our standards, then they can contact us. Some of our products come from the market stall that sells sustainable products on Friday (that saves me from unnecessary driving 😉)

I also saw some initiatives about filling your own oil flask and returning an empty soap bottle, can you please tell me more about this initiative(s)?

As already mentioned before, our aim is to reduce the amount of waste. This waste could be material waste, but also food waste et cetera. We give people the opportunity to refill their own oil flasks, bring back their (plastic) soap bottles and purchase a new one, so we can send

back the empty bottle to the fabric, where they can recycle them.

These kind of initiatives lures a lot of people to the store that are like-minded and have the same standards. Another initiative we have is that, when we have some leftover vegetables, it will be given away to people that need it the most. This idea is called ‘SOS groente’ (SOS vegetables).

Every now and then we compile food packages from groceries that were donated from the customers. We give these food packages to the voedselbank (Food Bank) that then drive through the more poorer areas of Leeuwarden to hand them out. Doing this gives us such a good and thankful feeling.

I heard the other day about the corporation you have in mind for this business. How does that work?

We basically want to ‘cut’ out store into 250 small pieces and sell those pieces to customers. These customers will be one of the 250 owners and make part of the corporation. They can dictate the future of the store and choose what kind of products the store would sell. If this goes well, we want to start more stores with the same principle. So far we sold 40 out of the 250 pieces.

Summary

In conclusion, Jouw Dagelijkse Kost is a grocery store that opened in 2019 in response to the trend that people are aware increasingly of the environment. To be more sustainable, they greatly focus on local-based products and less waste such as packaging and food waste. For instance, customers can refill their own bottles, leftover vegetables or donations are sent to people who need them by cooperating with the local community. All products sold are eco-friendly and

Dagelijkse Kost bears responsibility for where the products come from and how they are made. Moreover, fair trade is also taken into consideration. Jouw Dagelijkse Kost pays attention to not only the earth but also to people. Sustainability has become a more and more crucial topic and they are currently thinking to start more stores to spread the idea.