Phili's blog | Sustain

To help inspire others to consider alternative ways of shopping Phili Denning shares her story of setting up a food buying group from her garage in South London. Over the following weeks we'll follow her story about the highs and lows of setting up a viable business whilst sticking firmly to your values.

Phili hopes that through this blog she can share her experiences and inspire others to consider alternative ways of shopping with less environmental impact. Thanks for reading it and feel free to contact Phili with any questions or comments you may have.

Plastic is definitely not fantastic!

Hi I’m Phili. I’m here to share my story and experience of setting up a food buying group.

How to sell food to my friends

Episode 2: How to sell food to my friends

Where to buy 25kg bags of food

Time to consider which wholesale supplier to use for my buying group. I looked into the following three UK wholefood wholesalers in some...

Shelves, storage, scoops, scales

So what start-up costs will we have in terms of equipment, storage and so on?

Now I need people!

This week I have considered in more detail how the group will actually function, how to explain this to people and who I will ask to join

Got my hands full now!

So I have 13 interested families. What an awesome response.

The money

Meet up evening was great, everyone was really enthusiastic, seemed reassured by my explanation of the process, probed me with good questions and...

Getting physical

So no sitting around eating cake or drinking wine this week. No it’s been time for all the physical preparations.

Items out of stock, price changes and refunds

Funds from the group have now been collected, so on to the online Suma order. A few issues were encountered which caused a bit of a headache.

The day I’ve been waiting for

Episode 10: The day I’ve been waiting for - first delivery!

Collection conundrums

Episode 11: Collection conundrums

Collection two

Episode 12: Collection two

Collection three - my birthday!

Episode 13: Collection three - my birthday!

The no shows!

Episode 14: The no shows!

Packaging left over

Episode 15: Packaging left over

Try, try and try again

Episode 16: Try, try and try again.

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