Pantry cuts waste, adds convenience

A family-owned business in Yealering, opened this year, is offering shoppers environmentally friendly and locally sourced products.

Inspired by thriving businesses in Perth, the Yealering Pantry uses the bare minimum of plastic packaging in their products and lets customers choose the exact quantity they want.

Instead of conventional packaging or plastic shopping bags, glass jars and tins are used to transport, then store, products from the Yealering Pantry’s shelves to local homes.

“We’d seen the concept of these stores in Perth ... we were interested in the waste-free concept, which is trendy at the moment, if you like,” owner Matt Pockran said.

“We had seen what our eldest daughter, Chloe, had done (after shopping at a waste-free store) with the reduction of rubbish at her place. She’s down to a litre a week of rubbish. Instead of boxes and bags, we have containers and just refill them.”

Once entering the store, shoppers fill up reusable containers, either their own or ones supplied by the store, with products they want to buy before heading to the counter, where it is all weighed paid for.

From cleaning products to stable grains to cheeky snacks, Matt and Bron Pockran’s new enterprise has an ever-growing stock list.

Growing trade for the Yealering Pantry means the Pockran family can invest in more products for their customer base.

Offering waste-free alternatives to the region was not the only reason the Pockrans decided to open the business.

“We decided one of us, either my wife or myself, want to do something to help (daughter) Alecs, who is 17 now and is on the autism spectrum,” he said. “It’s obviously hard for someone to get a job here, there’s no job opportunities, there’s no services and everything is far away.