Free!

All this blogging about shops is all well and good, but let’s face it – sometimes shopping just makes us aware that we can’t afford everything, and that life isn’t all designer labels and gourmet supermarkets. As the recession has proven, the consumerism we’ve grown to know isn’t the way towards a loving, sustainable community. Take a step into The Free Store, at 38 Ghuznee Street, and you might also be inspired to think there is another way to change economics as we know it… particularly in terms of your groceries.

This concept store with a conscience was instigated by Kim Paton, who wanted to raise discussion about the supply chain and the wastage that comes from our food retail outlets. After three years owning and working in a Waikato Grocery store, she saw firsthand the huge amounts of waste that couldn’t necessarily be redistributed. By thinking about generosity and ways of innovating the supply chain, she came upon The Free Store as a blueprint for redistribution.

She’s brought on board Arobake, Brooklyn Bakery, Supreme, People’s Coffee, and Progressives’ Countdown and Woolworths supermarkets, as well as welcomes contributions from anyone who has excess to share around. And if you pop into the store, you can walk away with as much as you want – but the prospect of everything being free and excess from other shops really does make you consider what you actually need! Apparently there has been a real mix of people coming into the store, from those who are just plain curious, to those with financial pressures as such that they are using the store to keep them going through the week. I popped in on Saturday, around lunchtime, and the store was bare, bar for some baking bananas, and some beans. But I know I’ll be back next week, half curious to see what might be in stock, and half looking for lunch.

The Free Store is part of The Letting Space series, an initiative curated and run by Sophie Jerram and Mark Amery, which encourages artists to work with empty commercial spaces in the City, and also consider these interactions in terms of the economic downturn. The Free Store is open Monday – Saturday until 5^th June. Go check it out, or get in to contact with Kim if you have anything you might want to donate to the store.