A decade ago, husband and wife Jeremy and Bettina Kirk launched the first Scoop Whole Foods supermarket in Mosman, Sydney. Now, the business has a presence across three continents – Australia, Europe and Asia – and is looking to beauty and digital to grow its footprint further. The Scoop model is deceptively simple: the business skips distributors and sources products straight from growers and producers, offering customers a food shopping experience that is free of plastic packaging. Shopper
pers bring their own bags, or use bags the business supplies, in order to purchase unprocessed foods and personal care products from one of the business’ 17 locations.
Earlier this year, Scoop launched its first foray into reusable beauty.
Cutting chemicals and plastic
“Scoop Whole Beauty is Australian-made, ethical, 100 per cent natural beauty products which come in refillable glass and bamboo containers,” Scoop’s research and development director Daisy Kirk told Inside Retail.
“No one in the market is offering a closed-loop system for cosmetics, which is an industry that creates a lot of plastic waste and uses a lot of toxic chemicals. So, to be able to have Australian-made ethical, natural beauty in our stores is really exciting.”
Scoop Whole Beauty products are currently only available in the business’ Mona Vale and Newcastle stores, but are set to be expanded to the rest of the network in the coming months.
Kirk explained that the line has been soft launched to see how it functions in the store, and how to educate customers around how to refill the products.
“At the moment we’re really focusing on educating our teams so they can get the message across [to customers] so that people understand why this is different,” Kirk said.
“We’re working with Australia’s leading manufacturer of natural mineral makeup [who has been] very much involved in training and product design with us so that we can come to market with a really cool product, and encourage customers to try the closed-loop system.”
The idea is for customers to purchase and use Whole Beauty products, and then return to the store with their glass and bamboo containers to be refilled. Customers will receive a discount on their refill, as they aren’t paying for the container a second time.
The range will launch in the business’ Singaporean stores at the end of this year, after its rollout in Australia.
Co-founder Jeremy Kirk noted that the beauty launch is just one example of the business’ commitment to give customers what they want.
“[Early on] we decided not to franchise the business out, which means we don’t need to have approval by franchisees,” Jeremy told Inside Retail.
“We can adapt very quickly. When a customer comes in and asks why we don’t have a particular type of product, we can source it ourselves the next day and get it in for them.”
Greener pastures
Scoop is also looking to grow through international expansion. Talks are ongoing with operators across Europe to bring the Scoop Whole Foods model to new markets, and closer to home, the business is partnering with forthcoming cleantech startup Greener to offset its customers’ emissions, a move that is expected to attract new shoppers.
Because of Scoop’s commitment to cutting plastic out of the equation, it doesn’t offer its customers online delivery. But Greener could help expand its reach.
When Greener launches later this year, the startup will enable customers to offset the carbon emissions of their online orders from participating retailers, such as Scoop, Bared, Icebreaker and Koala. And, if customers are shopping in the vicinity of a partnered business, they’ll be alerted that a ‘greener’ option is available nearby – potentially pushing more customers into that business’ doors.
“If we’re going to drive real impact, we need to drive mainstream consumers to some of these businesses,” Greener founder Tom Ferrier told Inside Retail.
“We’ve secured over 250 pre-launch partners, and we’re really lucky because we’re getting fantastic brands buying into the idea.”
Ferrier noted that Greener has vetted the approximately 250 brands it is already working with to ensure they are actually taking steps to do better by the environment – and are committed to get their customers to do better as well.
“If we can get more customers and businesses involved it becomes a flywheel that just keeps spinning,” Ferrier said.
“I know the scientists say we can solve it, but they don’t say it’s going to be easy. It’s going to be tough, but it’s possible, and we need to come together to do it.”