‘We never ran out of toilet roll’: the Edinburgh eco store that’s thriving in lockdown
The husband and wife team running The Eco Larder have been stranded in different parts of Scotland in lockdown, but that’s not stopping them from keeping their zero-waste store open
On 5 June, The Eco Larder co-owner Matthew Foulds had his first day off work for 90 days. Making the most of his free time, he picked up a hire bike and went for a ride. An apt choice, given that when lockdown began, The Eco Larder started offering bicycle deliveries for the first time.
This new option is one of the ways that Matthew and his co-owner and wife, Stephanie Foulds, have adapted their business during the coronavirus pandemic. “We started offering a delivery service as soon as the lockdown came into place because of how difficult it was for people to get hold of groceries,” says Stephanie. “And because we’re an environmental company, we decided to do this by cargo bike.”
The Eco Larder is a zero-waste social enterprise food store in the Haymarket area of Edinburgh. It opened in November 2018 after a successful crowdfunding campaign helped the couple to raise £23,000. Their vision was inspired by their daughter, who was only six months old at the time. “She’s a really big driver for why we do what we do,” explains Stephanie. “We just wanted to bring her up in a world that takes better care of the planet than we have been seeing over our lifetime.”
Juggling a newly established business and a small child is a challenge. Add a global pandemic into this mix? “It was total chaos”, laughs Stephanie, who is currently staying on the Isle of Bute with her mother and daughter. They travelled there before any of the lockdown restrictions came into force so that her mother, who shares their flat in Edinburgh, could recover from a period of ill health, which included a week in intensive care.
Until she is able to return to Edinburgh, Stephanie is handling ordering for the store remotely while Matthew keeps the shop doors open with the help of assistant Charlotte Wood.
Yet despite the physical divide, they have worked together to adapt their business model as circumstances changed. As soon as the store’s local Post Office shut, for example, they stopped orders of lifestyle products through the website. They also reduced the store’s opening hours to manage deliveries and the extra cleaning now required.
The couple are both qualified yoga instructors and have a studio at the back of the store. While the physical classes have had to come to an end for now, Matthew is managing to find time on Sundays to offer a Zoom class for their regular yogis who are still keen for their weekly fix.
The lockdown has resulted in more positive innovations too. As well as introducing cargo bike deliveries, The Eco Larder now offers click-and-collect. “It’s a contactless service,” says Stephanie. “We leave the goods outside the shop for people. That’s been really popular now that lockdown is easing.”
Although this has been a challenging time, The Eco Larder has thrived. The store has remained open seven days a week and turnover rose by almost 22% in one month alone. Much of this extra custom has come from people who are new to The Eco Larder and the concept of a zero-waste store, allowing Matthew and Stephanie to share their vision with a wider audience.
We leave the goods outside the shop for people. That’s been really popular now that lockdown is easing.
Stephanie is keen to highlight Matthew’s hard work over the last few months (“I’m really proud of him for everything he’s doing and showing up every single day”), but it is thanks to both of them that their business has done so well. “We never ran out of toilet roll,” says Stephanie with pride.
The couple have also been able to draw on support from various sources. Thanks to an existing relationship with a walking and cycling charity, they were able to borrow two cargo bikes and find two volunteers to do their deliveries. Being part of the Visa network has helped too. “Having the support of bigger companies is necessary for smaller businesses,” says Stephanie. “They have the resources to raise the profile of a small business like ours.”
The couple have been keen to give back to others, too. Rather than charging for their deliveries, they asked for a £5 donation and put a food box together every week, based on how many deliveries they had, and delivered it to the foodbank at Tollcross community hub, which is close to the shop.
Looking to the future, Stephanie and Matthew would like to open another store in Edinburgh as this would expand their zero-waste mission and allow them to reduce prices. “Being the type of shop we are, it’s all small suppliers,” states Stephanie. “It’s just an issue of supply and demand. The more demand that there is, then the lower we can provide prices.
“And we’d just love to see that happen for everyone and make [zero waste] really an option that everybody can take [up].”
Until that is possible, the couple are focused on buying their own cargo bike and offering deliveries on all weekdays, not just three days a week – so Matthew had better get more practice miles in on his next day off too.