“Lovely company with a friendly and personal service. Great range of products and new treats being added all the time. “ Anna, Stapleton
Nikki & Matt formed Nom in 2019 from their home in Fishponds, Bristol.
Reducing plastic
Over the years they had become more interested in reducing the amount of plastic they used at the same time as sourcing more ethically grown food.
They found themselves traveling to other parts of Bristol but wanted easy access to buying this food without single use packaging. Chatting to local friends they found they wanted the same thing too. So they decided to bring the refill shop to Fishponds, well to their home in fact!
Now, Nikki takes the lead in running Nom, while Matt continues his other full time job. We hope he will come on board permanently soon!
As the business grows each month, Nom is nearly out of space. They are now actively looking for premises to open a shop on Staple Hill High Street. This will give convenience to customers while allowing Nom to expand their delivery service.
Climate Change
Along with many other people in the country, they were horrified watching Blue Planet II which highlighted the amount of waste, especially plastic, that is in our oceans. Since then, the 2020 UN report on climate change has also shown what needs to happen to slow down climate change before it’s too late.
How can we make meaningful changes?
It’s easy to feel helpless in the face of the statistics, and they have wondered many times if it’s really worth recycling that tiny bit of plastic, or refusing a disposable coffee cup. Can our one decision make a change? But they are firm believers that the small changes build into the big changes.
Nikki says: “We are not perfect. We don’t claim to live a 100% zero waste lifestyle, but we make the changes we can that are within our budget and work for us.”
Plastic Free Champions
In October 2020 Nom was awarded the Plastic Free Champion award from Surfers Against Sewage plastic free communities.
Nom is a refill shop committed to providing the East Bristol & South Glos. community with the highest quality natural food, sourced ethically, with minimum impact to the environment.
A refill shop with packaging?
As we are delivering to you, we have to package your orders in something! There are many ways we can do this, and it’s been a challenge to decide what works best. It can be decided on an environmental, waste, cost, durability and an ease of use basis. Each way has pros and cons. So we leave it for you to decide how you want your order packed. Please see the Packaging page for more details.
Pre packaged items
Over time, customers have requested products that are pre packaged such as tinned goods, or nut butters which we have decided to add to the range. Very few of these are packaged in plastic eg. minor figures oat milk and all of them can be recycled. They are things we are unable to keep in stock as refills at the moment. We see these is temporary until we have a future shop space and will be able to offer refill milk and peanut butter amongst many other things!
Organic vs. non-organic food
It’s our firm belief that this way of living should be open to everyone not just the rich. We appreciate that organic food will be more expensive due to the techniques involved, but we can’t afford to shop at organic refill shops every time. We also believe that some shops overcharge for organic food because they can get away with it. Our products are priced honestly. You are getting top quality non-organic and organic food sourced as locally as possible at a fair price. You may not be able to use us for all your groceries but we hope you can find items that suit your taste and budget and come back to us regularly for those items.
Our Pledge
Our pledge to you is that we will strive to run our business in the most sustainable way at all times while maintaining the highest possible service to our customers.
We will question every supplier, and every product we buy and ask if it’s the best environmentally and ethically we can do.
Nom today is not the finished article and never will be. We will make constant changes to the refill shop system and improve our service and sustainability. We will keep you informed at all times and remain transparent with our decisions. Thank you for joining us on this ride!
Please get in touch with any feedback and any products you’d like to see on our ‘shelves’. We’ll consider all suggestions.