CALASIAO, Pangasinan – Greener Option, a retail store in this town, has gained instant popularity for its advocacy of a package-free shopping experience that is both environmentally sound and beneficial to customers.
The store has a wide range of products to choose from ranging from condiments, laundry and bath soap, shampoo and conditioner, to grains, pasta and nuts, among others. They are available at affordable prices,but customers should bring their own carrying bags.
Joya Lim, one of the shop’s owners, said together with her friends, Dr. Katherine Salayog-Jamon and Tanya Rayos, started Greener Option last year to provide environment-conscious consumers like them a store where they could shop and not be guilty of too much plastic wastes.
“We usually carry eco-bags and containers in grocery stores but we noticed that instead of being encouraged to do the same, other consumers do not embrace it as it seems they see it as time-consuming,” Lim told media.
Lim said they decided to put up the store to see how it would impact the community and encourage customers to adopt package-free shopping if not zero-waste.
“We were overwhelmed by the response of the people from all over the province. Even those who are quite far away, take time to come to our store,” she added.
Lim admitted her inclination to go green or eco-friendly was due to her exposure to an open dumpsite in 2016 where she saw the end point of plastic wastes.
“Hopefully people would realize where plastic wastes go. We went there and we saw mountains of garbage. We hope people would segregate their trash which they don’t and only makes the job of trash collectors more difficult,” she said.
“By doing package-free shopping, we are lessening plastic wastes little by little daily, and someday this will have an impact, she shared, adding that they also made the price of their products competitive or cheaper than grocery stores since packaging costs have been reduced.
“We are communicating with big brands if they could possibly support our advocacy for package-free retailing but right now, most of our products are generic brands and or homemade,” she said.
Lawrence Perez, one of the store’s customers, said prices of products at Greener Option are of good quality. The store is located at Barangay Poblacion in Calasiao. It also offers delivery services all over the province. It accepts online orders.