Scoop Wholefoods, Mosman

In the last few days a new shop has opened that’s within walking distance from where I live called Scoop Wholefoods.  It’s situated almost at Mosman Junction on Spit Road but the shop goes all the way through to the rear lane where you can enter Bridgepoint Shopping Centre.  So it’s in a great location for shoppers because it’s easily accessed by both people shopping on foot or those who have parked under the shopping centre.

 

The entrance to the store from the rear lane

The entrance to the store from the rear lane


Scoop Wholefoods has an interesting shopping concept.  The team at Scoop believes in lessening our carbon footprint so therefore packaging is minimal.  Nothing in the store has been pre-packaged.    All products are sourced in bulk then placed in clear plastic containers.

Inside the store

Inside the store

Customers are given brown paper bags in a range of sizes and a pen and when you decide on the product you want to buy you write the product code onto the outside of the bag then use the provided scoop to fill the bag with as much of the item as needed.

Everything seems quite reasonably priced

Everything seems quite reasonably priced

I think this is a terrific idea because you can purchase only as much or as little as you need and subsequently not have all those annoying leftovers sitting in your pantry clogging up space with no clue as to what you will do with them.

Lots of buckets of pasta

Lots of buckets of pasta

Scoop Wholefoods offers a wide variety of raw, organic and natural wholefoods that have been sourced from Australia and New Zealand.  Every effort is made to ensure the products come from ethical and sustainable sources.

Lots of gluten-free options here too

Lots of gluten-free options here too

The shop was buzzing when I was there with everyone embracing this new way of shopping (although I’m sure this is how everyone used to shop back in the days of Little House on the Prairie or The Walton’s).

Lots of ancient grains

Lots of ancient grains

There’s a great range of ancient grains like barley and farro, dried fruits, flours, chocolate and carob-coated goodies, spices, cereals, teas and pastas and a lot of gluten-free items as well.

Lots of 70% chocolate choices

Lots of 70% chocolate choices

There’s oils and vinegars and the idea is that you first buy either the oil or the vinegar in a bottle then when empty, you bring the bottle back to have it re-filled, saving packaging and money.  They have a lovely organic extra virgin olive oil in the store and I’m going to buy it in this way.

Refillable bottles of olive oil

Refillable bottles of olive oil

I had a lot of fun browsing around the store and couldn’t leave without buying a few things so I bought a jar of freshly made peanut butter (nothing in there but the nuts!) some dark chocolate-coated almonds, a couple of lengths of spelt licorice, some carob-coated aniseed rings and black peppercorns (because our pepper grinders seem to always be on empty).

My purchases

My purchases

This is their first store and if it goes well I’m sure they’ll open many more.

Scoop Wholefoods:  14 Spit Road, Mosman Ph:  02 8065 3400

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Comments

  1. How nice to have a place like this nearby, Charlie! What were the prices like?

  2. It looks beautifully organised and is a great concept. I shop at a similar store here in Auckland and like being able to choose the quantities I need and minimise waste.

  3. I would go mad in a place like that trying out new things in small amounts. Our Bulk Barn chain isn’t quite as ‘minimal packaging’ oriented but you can buy a herbs, spices, candy, chocolates, grains, pastas etc.

  4. A great find. For those on the other side of the harbour there is a non-profit co-operative called Alfalfa House at Enmore.

  5. Oh, how fantastic! I’d love something like this to open up here. I buy some things (dried fruit/nuts, dried legumes, some grains) from a small bulk food retailer but it’s nothing like this in terms of scale. More of these shops would go a long way towards reducing packaging and increasing whole eating!

  6. Great concept. We have something similar, but limited items, in our area. The carbon footprint is further reduced because the wholefoods have been sourced from Australia and New Zealand.

  7. Very interesting for an entire store …. equally interesting will be if it survives.

  8. Yes, I expect this is how the early settlers shopped back in the day in Walnut Grove, Minnesota. We have some bulk items in grocery stores here, but not many. And the bags are plastic. Brown paper bags are an excellent idea. I detest plastic.

  9. they call them “bulk food stores” in Canada

  10. what a nice place… Thanks and Love, nia

  11. I love shops where you can buy just as much as you need. With just the two of us, my pantry is forever full!

  12. I am so so so jealous!!! I’d love to have a Scoop wholefoods store near my place I love the idea of being able to scoop everything instead of having large bags of flour, nuts or dried fruit you only use once and OMG the chocolates!!!

  13. We have these type of shops, but we call them bulk food, I think the name Scoop is way sexier! The one in our neighbourhood is a small family owned business and they also offer a variety of locally sourced and organic foods, often even less expensive than the big bulk stores! The biggest one in Toronto is called Bulk Barn! Not sexy at all! I’d love it if they offered the paper bags instead, so much more environmental, and I love that you can refill the olive oils and vinegar bottles. Great review!

  14. A lovely food Health store,….very clean & cool looking!

  15. I love to shop there especially the DRIED FRUITS section

  16. Oh yes..we call them bulk food stores here. They’re awesome places to shop!

  17. The sight of all those wonderful bulk bins makes my heart beat fast–with envy. In the US, these kinds of stores exist, but so far not in my area of Mexico, which is a real shame. Example: in the States you can buy organic quinoa for about $2 a pound; here in Mexico it costs over $15 per pound. Yikes!

  18. Bulk grains are such a good deal!

  19. What a great store Charlie…I love this kind of store because I can try everything…and not feel guilty to discard things that I do not like….and being able to go back to the store and buy a lot of what I like…sounds confusing, but it is not 😀
    Hope you are having a fun week my dear!

  20. My grocery shop fills my shopping trolley, but when I unpack it seems to shrink as about two thirds is packaging bulk to throw away! This seems like a great shop Charlie, how lucky to have it just down the road from you. Happy green and ethical shopping!

  21. A much more economical way of shopping – buy what you need only and doesn’t everything seem to be doing a full cycle these days. I can remember as a child everyone always took their own shopping bags. I wonder if they are going to open in Melbourne?

  22. I wish we had places like this!

  23. Oh wow – what an awesome place. It definitely looks worth the drive for me to check out. How lucky you are close enough to walk to it. xx

  24. Please please please can you ask them to open one in Brisbane, preferably on the inner north side? What a great place!

  25. Fantastic – I hope that is the way of the future. We buy like that from local Indian stores and it costs a fraction of the usual cost. A bag of white rice flour, which costs almost $10 in the supermarket, costs $2. I hope they come to NZ.

  26. Oh, Charlie, I DO hope this kind of store will multiply and come southwards of Sydney – a fabulous progression for Greenie Me!!! I would be absolutely besides myself being able to buy fresh, in a brown paper bag and just as much as I want!!! Thank you for giving us here the info to make some local enquiries . . . .

  27. They have a place called Sprouts like that here and it’s got TONS of natural grind your own peanut butters. Love it!

  28. G’day and wow Charlie, this is my type of place, true!
    When next in the area, will be on my list too!
    Cheers! Joanne

  29. How I would love a shop like this in my area, Charlie. I don’t need to buy enough of anything to feed a family of 5, even allowing for Max’s pilfering. This means I’ve got partially filled bags & boxes of stuff in my kitchen. The Scoop Wholefoods idea cannot get here soon enough!

  30. Oh, I can only dream of such a magnificent place – good thing we don’t have one here, I would probably bankrupt us! So many wonderful goodies on offer.
    Have a super weekend Charlie.
    🙂 Mandy xo
    PS. Celia is keeping the International Scone Week open until the end of the weekend if you still want to make a batch. 😉

  31. I love shops like this! Only problem is that I can literally spend up to an hour inside gawking at everything, heh.

  32. Such a good concept – I hope it works! Interested to know how the cost stacks up too – I used to buy my lentils and things from the organic food shop this way, until I got a rude shock at the cash register one day. But I love the low packaging focus – it’s so hard to try and live low-waste.

  33. How wonderful to have such healthy shopping within walking distance. Tell them to come to the US! New Hampshire in particular…. 😉

  34. Charlie, if one of these opened up here, I’d shop there. What a great idea! I’d like being able to refill olive oil bottles — you can only recycle so many of them into vases. Thanks, too, for the reminder to put peppercorns on my shopping list — my grinder is empty (again…) Nice review!

  35. Found it and I love it. Just about to make Persian Love cake using lots of ingredients from Scoop Wholefoods.

  36. We have a shop not far from me that’s very similar. It’s called Nude Food because it has no packaging. Lots of gluten free things and things similar to what your store has. Ours is on a smaller scale, I’m sure. 🙂

  37. What a fantastic concept! I enjoy groceries with bulk products sans packaging, but I’ve never found an outlet like Scoop! The whole store? I would really enjoy shopping here. I’m so bothered by how much packaging accompanies even the simplest of sales! This is a great place. I hope it catches on worldwide. 🙂

  38. What a fabulous little joint! Love the idea that they are lessening their carbon footprint! Always a good idea in my book! I love that you can only buy what you need too, lessening bulk in your pantry. FABULOUS!!!

  39. I love this! Australia seems to be wonderfully progressive and this ‘retro new way’ is wonderful. We have some similar but not to this extent.And nowhere near where I am now.I miss being in a real city.

  40. Great scoop. I can recall a health food shop at Spit Junction where Priceline is that was open in the 60’s – early 80’s. The smell of apricots as you walked through was amazing

  41. Everything old is new again. Even though our grandparents had no concept of protecting the environment they lived in an all together greener way. Looks like an intersting concept.
    Carolyn

Trackbacks

  1. […] I bought all the seeds, nuts and dried fruits from Scoop Wholefoods.  This way I could buy the exact quantities I needed.  The medjool dates were the most expensive […]

  2. […] crackers are very easy to make especially if you live near Mona Vale or Mosman as you can go to Scoop Wholefoods where they package all the dry ingredients needed to make both the bread and the crackers.  All […]

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