The food is bare-naked and the produce is measured in ye’ ol’ fashioned way – by how much you need, not by how much Billa and the SPAR think you need. Welcome to one of Vienna’s only zero-packaging grocery stores.
We all know the problem: we’re trying to be sustainable and eco-friendly, but shopping normally means buying everything in bags within bags, plastic containers that are sealed fresh with shrink wrap. However, Andrea Lunzer has put a stop to all that at her zero-packaging grocery store, Lunzers Maß-Greißlerei.
A quick note for all those who haven’t heard the beautiful Austrian word “Greißlerei” before: directly translated it means “grocery shop”, but to those that grew up in Austria, it carries memories of the golden days of youth for people raised in Austria. It’s similar to the British corner deli.
Lunzers Maß-Greißlerei takes an original approach to the old-school Greißler culture – the place is rather bright, with a high ceiling and a trendy minimalist interior with a cool colour concept. Unfortunately, you are more likely to receive a glance, rather than a welcome upon arrival, which might be a bit of a downer for people who experienced the warm ways of yesteryear’s Greißlers.
But all reminiscing aside, Maß-Greißlerei takes the business of no-waste, clean, bio living seriously.
“I’ve worked with packaging and would always get a bit annoyed when I saw that customers went for half-assed solutions like bio-degradable plastics. So I’m working towards a world without packaging – there’s really no need for it,” says Andrea.
Standing true to her word, Andrea’s joint offers almost everything from spices, flour, breads, various teas, nuts, oils and dairy products, right down to biological cleaning agents, and of course, fresh produce from the surrounding regions. All of it is unpackaged and openly accessible to the customer to buy how much they need.
So bring along your own screw top jars, unused urns or lampshades, let them weigh the tare weight and start stuffing your containers with the many fabulous goodies lining the shelves. Afterwards, the jar is weighed again and you pay; Simple as peeling a banana with your teeth. If you can’t find any suitable container at home, you can of course buy reusable glass jars and containers in store.
To wrap it up – if you, like us, salute the idea of a world minus the mountains of plastic being stockpiled in landfills for no particular reason, and reducing the monstrous amount of food waste in our bins, write yourself a shopping list and get on down to Lunzers Maß-Greißlerei.
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