: Unlike most supermarkets where grocery items are prepackaged and ready to take off the shelf, certain stores in the UAE allow shoppers to bring their own bottles, boxes and cloth bags -- dispense what they want and pay according to weight.
At Grandiose Supermarkets for instance, containers hold things like cooking oils so that people can pour however much they want.
“Soon we will be able to add ketchup and milk to the list,” said Franck Rouquet, CEO, Grandiose Supermarkets, which has six outlets in the UAE. “The idea is to be eco-friendly and help reduce food wastage. Take ketchup. People buy an entire bottle but are rarely able to finish it before it expires. The same goes for milk and many other products,” said Rouquet.
- Franck Rouquet, CEO, Grandiose supermarkets
Similarly, Organic Foods and Café in Dubai allows customers to bring their own containers when shopping for laundry detergents, toiletries, eco-friendly cleaning products and food items like cheese.
Shopping habits
Nils El Accad, founder and owner of the café, said she hoped the move will help people change their shopping habits to lead a healthier and environmentally conscious lifestyle. The practice of customers bringing their own bags has been around for a while at major supermarkets like Carrefour, Spinneys, Choithram, Union Cooperative Society, Lulu Hypermarkets and West Zone.
But the bags are mainly used for the purchase of fruits and veggies.
