Refillables Hoi An, the first refillable concept store in Central Vietnam, began with the opposite of an impulse buy: founder Alison Batchelor regretted her decision not to buy a large bottle of hand soap from a salon supply store. “I went back to the store and they didn’t have it,” Alison said, recalling how her disappointment turned to elation when a stylist offered to fill up a one-liter bottle then and there. “She went in the back, got a bottle, and filled it up…. [and I thought] all this time, for years, I could have been refilling my bottle! The whole way home, I was like, that’s what I could do. I can open a refill store,” she said.
From consumer to shop owner
Alison is no stranger to refill stores. Back in her home country of Canada, she had frequented The Soap Dispensary & Kitchen Staples, Vancouver’s first refill shop specializing in premium soaps, household cleaners, personal care products, and DIY products. “They had a strong Do-It-Yourself (DIY) section, with a lot of individual ingredients that you could put together to make your own things. Through their workshops, I learned how to make hand soap, bar soap, cold-pressed soap, and face cream,” Alison said. “I’m a creative at heart.”
Alison’s previous job marketing an eco-friendly detergent alternative had also trained her to scrutinize ingredients for harmful chemicals that may degrade the environment. This eco-consciousness informed both her buying decisions and her practice of creating alternatives from scratch.
Trials and triumphs
Alison came across a few roadblocks in developing what would become Refillables Hoi An: her inability to speak the Vietnamese language meant relying on Google Translate; she went through a series of assistants that, though helpful, weren’t from Hoi An and left for opportunities elsewhere; and she encountered suppliers who had zero interest in switching from 500mL containers to 30-liter containers. She persisted in tracing products to their makers and soon built a reliable supplier base that would not compromise on affordable, good-quality, refillable, and eco-friendly products. One of her first suppliers, Minh Hong from nearby Da Nang, understood that Alison wanted to target a low-income demographic and so provided discounts on wholesale prices. These discounts were offset by minimized packaging costs. Minh Hong’s team took back their containers, and even picked up the unreturned receptacles of other suppliers, for refilling.
A small shop in Hanoi called Ekoko adapted their packaging to be able to supply Alison not only with mineral salt deodorant but also with refill shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. Similarly, a supplier of coconut oil soap called Nude made their packaging plastic-free. “They used brown paper but there was like a plastic wrap around the soap on the inside. It can’t look eco on the outside and then not be on the inside, so they worked with me to realign their packaging,” Alison shared.
DIY startup launches
Alison invested 6,000 Canadian dollars and a whole lot of legwork into the business. She set up shop at the front of her own house, furnishing it with salvaged and/ or refurbished secondhand furniture. In true DIY spirit, her husband transported the found objects and, during his free time, created shelving to be filled up by Alison’s curated refillables (sold by weight and volume so as to minimize waste) and sustainable alternatives to everyday products (e.g., moon cups, reusable sanitary pads, bamboo toothbrushes, etc.).
“It varies from home care and personal care products, to essential oils, and now we’re expanding into foodstuffs. Because of my background, and then my passion and my enjoyment of being able to make things yourself, there’s a variety of DIY products,” Alison said. “There’s a lot we can put together to make very simple cleaning products that are so cheap and affordable, and right now—especially with the coronavirus on a rampage throughout the world and people losing jobs and financial strife—people need affordability.”
The store, which marked its second anniversary in December 2020 has become entrenched in the local community. At peak, pre-pandemic, the shop serviced a roster of 30 local businesses. Walk-ins number anywhere from 5 to 20 individual customers daily.
The store’s impact on the community has been evident as well. For one, Alison’s suppliers are seeing increased patronage from startups.
“Now there are three different spots in Da Nang that are doing refills, and those newly opened shops take their cue from Refillables Hoi An in terms of the products they carry,” she said. The expats who have left Vietnam have also been inspired to start their own Zero Waste venture. “I’ve had people coming to me and wanting to emulate and do a similar shop wherever they are,” Alison said.
Alison is keen on avoiding products that are negatively impactful. “There’s no more room in a lot of landfills in this area. And people burn their plastic waste because they don’t know what else to do with it. So there is such a desperate need for figuring out how to divert stuff from the landfill… I would rather use that plastic bottle until it breaks and has to go to the landfill, than send it prematurely,” she said.
Originally published in January 2021 in Business Unusual: Enterprises Paving the Way to Zero Waste by the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) .
Photos courtesy of Refillables Hoi An. Visit their website and Facebook page to learn more about their products and their philosophy.