Packaging-free supermarket Pieter Pot declared bankrupt
Sad news in the supermarket world. Pieter Pot, the first packaging-free supermarket, has been declared bankrupt by the court in Rotterdam. Despite a crowdfunding campaign, the company founded by Jouri Schoenmaker could no longer stay afloat.
Products packaged in unnecessarily large amounts of plastic. Food that we throw away simply because we have too much of it. Not very environmentally friendly, all in all. That is precisely what Pieter Pot addressed in 2019. They believed grocery shopping could be more sustainable. So they developed a system in which customers could buy products in glass jars. You order what you want, Pieter Pot fills it in glass preserving jars and delivers your order to your home. When they come by with another order the next time, they take the empty jars with them and refund your deposit. Sounds good, right?
Financial problems for Pieter Pot
The idea was (and is) also very good, and plenty of customers agreed, so Pieter Pot’s customer base grew to around 20,000 active shoppers. Still, it was not enough. At the beginning of this year, Pieter Pot ran into financial trouble. The company took action. There was a new owner, Delicatessenfabriek, and the workforce was reduced. Things went well for a while, but in the autumn the problems began piling up again.
That prompted Pieter Pot to launch a crowdfunding campaign. The target amount was 3 million euros, but it stalled at just over 2 million. Creditor BPFL did not give them more time to reach the target. The bankruptcy was filed for and granted today because of a debt of € 80,000.
A fresh start?
Jouri Schoenmaker told NOS that he still has a great deal of confidence in the concept. With that, he hopes for a fresh start after all. Whether that will happen and what it will look like remains to be seen.
Read also:
- How hygienic is it to dispense your groceries?
- Bizarre: you can cook your food in the dishwasher
- What is better for the environment: plastic cling film or aluminum foil?
Sources: NU.nl and NOS, header image: Facebook Pieter Pot
