In an industry littered with excess packaging, it sounds like an impossible goal: in.gredients, a startup out of Austin, Texas, wants to create the first zero-waste, packaging-free grocery store in the U.S.. Can this ever work?
When it launches later this year, in.gredients won’t be in competition with your local Safeway; it won’t even offer the same selection. You’ll be able to find produce, grains, baking supplies, oils, dairy, meat, beer, wine, and household cleaners–but no Twinkies, Doritos, or other unhealthy snack foods that could also be found at your local corner store. In.gredients claims that it will carry “all the basic ingredients you need for life (and most recipes).”
“Most will perceive our competition as supermarkets, since we’re literally revising what grocery shopping looks like. But really, our competition is hyper-consumerism, which is just not sustainable long-term,” explains Brian Nunnery of in.gredients in an email to Fast Company. More.