gather

Rather late to this! - but a HUGE thanks to all of you for such lovely words about Gather (and @tomszekeres for kicking off this thread by sharing our video plea). It means the world to me and my team. The support Gather received in the days after the video was amazing - we definitely saw some regular faces again, and met some new ones. Then holidays came and - understandably - things got quiet again. We don't want to give up on Gather yet! Gather's a locally owned, independent, social enterprise business. We're passionate about making it easier for our community to live lower impact as affordably as possible. My team are super friendly and we love to chat about all things eco. If you've not yet shopped with us - please pop in and give us a go. If you used to, but got out of the habit when life went all surreal - we'd love to see you again. (And if you're a regular who's still with us: thank you, so much.) We're trying a few new things to make sure we offer what our community needs. We're now open every day, and 'til 7pm on Mondays and Wednesdays. We're always bringing in new products, often based on customer suggestions - most recently, lots of pantry tins and jars to make it easier to shop with us. And right now we're doing pre-orders on xmas cake kits, so our customers can get their cake plastic-free with the convenience of not having to weigh out 1.5kg of ingredients! Gather's also more than a store: we run a monthly book club, a popular monthly newsletter, we've got a mini-library and a lot of our social content focuses on eco education. We really hope to see you in store soon!

Hi everyone, We did indeed open yesterday - thanks to everyone who came, and to all those from the forum who have supported and informed us along the way - going back to that survey what feels like a lifetime ago! We had a brilliant and busy first day, and loved talking to everyone - we've already had some feedback on how we can do even better - please keep it coming! Hope to see you soon. Tash and Laura

Hi everyone, We've updated on the businesses section (and know we should be sticking to that one - just aware there is this thread too) - our big launch will now be on Saturday 13 July rather than this weekend. We've had a couple of hiccups that have set us back, we're really sorry. But we are very nearly there so see you soon hopefully. Tash and Laura

klove Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Hi Gather, looking forward to your opening. Could > you look at affordability too? Just refilled my > shower gel at another local shop (my partner > refuses to use soap!?) and 385mls cost ?5.80 which > was a bit steep. Sustainability should be for > everyone! Many thanks. Hi klove ? sorry it?s taken a while to reply on this point. This really matters to us: we want to be as accessible as possible, and we don?t believe that living sustainably needs to involve spending more (more often, it?s the opposite). Also, Gather is a social enterprise because we care more about making the world a little better than making buckets of cash. We really hope people will find we have a good range in terms of price as well as products. On food, we?ve tried where we can to match, or better, prices at the major supermarkets. And because we?re a refillery, you never have to buy more of something than you actually need, which helps to reduce food waste too. It?s also worth mentioning that we?ve chosen suppliers who share our ethos, and opted for organic products as a rule. Inevitably, there?ll be some areas where a small, independent shop just can?t compete with the cheapest major retailers, but we?d like to think we offer good value (in terms of quality, and impact on people and the planet), as well as affordability. Hope to see you in store soon!

yeknomyeknom - thank you, and we look forward to meeting you in store. KatieJ - thank you for your enthusiastic message of support, too. On containers, you can use anything you can weigh and carry something in: Tupperware, glass jars or bottles, cleaning product bottles (for liquid cleaning products), old takeaway boxes, produce bags, re-used paper bags... And if you forget your containers, we'll have cotton produce bags and recycled glass jars for sale, and paper bags for free.

Hi all, We are delighted to announce we will (finally) be opening on Saturday July 6 - hope to see as many of you as possible in the weeks and months ahead. Thanks Tash and Laura, Gather, 121 Bellenden Road www.wearegather.uk facebook.com/wearegather.uk/ instagram.com/wearegather_uk/ twitter.com/wearegather_uk

Sue and largeginandtonic - it?s great to hear your enthusiasm; thank you! Rollflick - our dishwasher tabs are Ecoleaf (Suma), which have a dissolvable wrapper and are eco-friendly. We can get dishwasher powder, but have been told it?s not always that effective in hard water; we?ll look in to it more!

Hi lucerne - we?ll have both of those: Faith In Nature shampoo/conditioner/body wash, and cleaning products from SESI, Ecoleaf and also things like citric acid, bicarb, dishwasher salt.

Hi everyone, A few weeks ago, with our friends from Plastic Free Peckham (and there is a brilliant Plastic Free East Dulwich group too), we went to see Southwark and Veolia's massive waste and recycling operation - www.instagram.com/p/Bxy9jj1Htbv. It's genuinely state of the art and we've been impressed by Veolia's approach on this, but it's still hugely difficult, with contamination a particular challenge. The BBC programme has, rightly, brought more attention to this, just as Attenborough and others have before, so hopefully Southwark will feel even more pressure to do the best they can. Of course, the ideal is not using single-use plastic at all, and as little plastic as possible. And soon you'll have a new local option for shopping that way - our zero waste / refillery store Gather opens (fingers crossed) later this month on Bellenden Road. And also hope, once a bit more settled, to be hosting talks, workshops, get-togethers etc to keep this conversation going. Thanks all

Hi, We (Gather, 121 Bellenden Road) just wanted to update in case anyone is wondering whether we have opened yet and if not why not.. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to open in May. We?ve been working almost every hour of every day to get things ready, but have had a series of setbacks that have pushed us towards the end of June (fingers crossed). As those of you who have followed this and other threads will know, we've been planning this for a very long time indeed, but we are nearly there! Gather is just the two of us (with some help from some amazing friends and family). We?re not a big corporation, and we don?t have buckets of money. We?re just two normal (and local) people who are giving everything we have to make a difference, and we?ll keep working every day, smiling through the sweat and tears (and so much sawdust!). As we say, we?re aiming for a launch at the end of this month. So please keep all your fingers and toes crossed for us! And if you see us DIYing away, give us a wave, a smile or a nod. It really does make our day. It's time we set up a separate Forum account, so we've now done that (this is our first message as Gather but obviously we've posted above in our pre-shop guise), and we will introduce ourselves over on the ED Businesses etc thread in a moment too. Thanks so much for all your support to date, including those who filled in our survey many moons ago - it, and the conversations on here, have genuinely helped shape what Gather is and will be. Thank you. Tash and Laura, Gather, 121 Bellenden Road www.wearegather.uk facebook.com/wearegather.uk/ instagram.com/wearegather_uk/ twitter.com/wearegather_uk