New Downtown Store
By John Swartz
The name Tyler Knight is not unfamiliar to the community. The videographer/photographer, venue operator (DRKRM Studio) and musician is well known. Now add grocer to the impression. Knight, along with his partner Allie Fry opened a grocery store Thursday, July 12, downtown in the store where Boudicca Books used to be.
“We opened at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. At one point we had 25 people in here. It was pretty crazy,” said Knight. “On Saturday we had 150/160 people through.”
One thing different about the store they call Refillery District should be obvious – bring your own containers and bags.
“The main thing is it’s a zero waste grocery store. There’s no packaging on the items. Any packaging there is, it’s either paper, glass or hemp,” said Knight.
“The idea is you are supposed to bring your own from home. If you have a laundry detergent container, you wash it out, dry it, bring it in, fill it back up.”
They have the noble idea to cut out the things that end up in landfills or recycling plants. If you don’t happen to have brought enough of your own containers, not to worry, they sell glass jars and cloth bags, and have small paper bags on hand
Their stock falls into two broad categories, you can eat it, or clean with it. Knight says with buying stock in large quantities the need for packaging is eliminated and it reduces his overhead. This leaves room to buy higher quality goods and sell at lower prices.
“One of the biggest things Allie has done is spent 6 months sourcing out the best quality items we could possibly have,” said Knight.
The concept is a twist on an idea they stumbled across while trying to take advantage of the vacant ground floor space in the same building Knight’s studio is in.
“We had the space available and Allie and were trying to come up with an idea. A friend of Allie’s had a similar type of store, just bulk foods, in New Zealand and we thought this could be elaborated on,” said Knight.
Refillery District is open 7 days a week, Monday to Friday 10 a.m. to 7 pm., Saturdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
See the accompanying video link in comments below.
(Photo by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia) Tyler Knight and Allie Fry at Refillery District.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOp5ZbTbkJA?version=3&autohide=1&autoplay=1
