In alphabetical order, the different types of muesli are stored in heavy precious metal barrels in Martina Steuer's storage room. © Sabine Hermsdorf-Hiss
Martina Steuer dispenses with everything that makes garbage in her shop Ohnverpackt
Wolfratshausen – Heavy-duty wooden shelves are lined up to the ceiling. It smells like a mixture of oats and wheat with a hint of sugar beet. On the boards are stainless steel barrels, paper bags and canisters with muesli, pasta, dried fruits, nuts. Next to it are containers of soy sauce, kidney beans and strained tomatoes. So it's a classic storage room in the food trade? No, one essential detail is missing: buckets and containers full of cardboard boxes or plastic films that you would otherwise discover in the halls and backyards of conventional supermarkets. In the ohnverpackt store on Wolfratshauser Obermarkt, the mantra of operator Martina Steuer dominates: The less packaging, the better consumption.
Ecological, practical, unpacked: This is how the Wolfratshausen unpackaged shop works
"We're trying to change something with the business," says Steuer (57), who opened the zero-waste store with her husband Bernd (68) three years ago. More sustainability, a more conscious approach to food, fair food production, the list of ambitions is long. Their starting point: to offer a low-packaging alternative instead of pre-portioned food shrink-wrapped in plastic. "Consumers have an insane power," Steuer emphasizes. "This will allow us to make the world a good deal better." That's why the operator couple dispenses with disposable packaging, works many hours more to clean returnable containers and the dispensing stations, pays attention to the origin, production and delivery of each product.
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The owner couple purchases around 60 items from about 1600 suppliers. Almost 70 percent of the product range is provided by two organic wholesalers. After the journey in the van, it arrives in the unpacked either in large deposit containers made of plastic or stainless steel, in 25-kilogram bags made of paper or in smaller deposit jars. This is a major difference to conventional supermarkets: "Packaging of any kind is returned to the supplier – at their expense," says Steuer. So it is not only because of her that the containers can easily be used a second, third, fourth or fifth and, in the case of some glass containers, even a 50th time. Wholesalers therefore share the responsibility for a functioning circular economy. From the sustainable use of soils and processing to logistics and sales – the focus is on reuse and avoidance of waste everywhere.
Save packaging where possible – "We're not completely happy yet"
In the shop area, Steuer sells many items from filling stations to the gram. However, only 500 of the 1600 items are really unpackaged and part of a perfect cycle, admits the shop owner. Others are on the shelves in returnable jars, refrigerated in the fresh food counter or ready in cardboard boxes for the shopping basket. "We're not quite happy with one or the other ourselves," she says, looking at portioned nut mixes on the shelf in 200-gram jars. "But at least there's a deposit on it."
Economically, the store is on a stable footing. "Our regular customers support us," says the owner. There are walk-in customers, "but the sales are brought by those who always come". For Steuer, this is hardly surprising. "Once you pay attention to where the products come from, there is no turning back. Either you buy completely disposable, or you buy little or not at all."
Suddenly, the shop door rings, a customer enters and greets Steuer warmly. He puts a can on the counter without comment and says goodbye again with the words "I'll be back this afternoon, okay?". The 56-year-old nods and then explains the wordless but ritualized intermezzo. "He came to our store some time ago and asked how he could gain weight in a healthy way. I recommended nuts to him. Since then, he has been fetching a portion several times a week – with his own can, of course."
Advice included: Wolfratshausen unpackaged store educates consumers
According to Steuer, the fact that customers seek their advice happens regularly. "Once, a customer came straight from a doctor's visit where she was told that she didn't tolerate gluten well. It was really dissolved," Steuer recalls. "I was able to calm her down a bit when I told her what she could still eat." She is definitely not a nutritionist, Steuer clarifies. But she knows exactly the nutrients of each individual item – thanks to the information from the wholesale trade. In her eyes, this is another advantage to anonymous shopping in the supermarket, "where the staff actually only knows which product belongs on which shelf".
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When it comes to choosing their range, the Steuer couple is meticulous. It must be ecological, sustainable and fair. They are less picky about the containers in which customers fill their noodles, rice grains or cereal portions. "It really doesn't matter whether it's an old mason jar, a lunch box or even a plastic bag. The main thing is to reuse it."
By the way: Everything from the region can also be found in our regular Wolfratshausen-Geretsried newsletter.
