Zero-waste grocery store Local Scoop opens in Encinitas

After studying nutrition in Australia, Katie Fletcher came home to San Diego looking for package-free grocery shopping options.

“I figured the idea existed and I just hadn’t known about it yet,” said Fletcher, who is originally from Solana Beach. “And so I kept searching bulk food, San Diego package-free grocery for years and nothing came up. So eventually I was like I’m just going to make it happen myself because I genuinely wanted it to exist in our community.”

In January she opened Local Scoop on South Coast Highway in downtown Encinitas, which requires customers to bring their own containers to fill with products that are charged by weight at checkout. The store is also hosting a grand opening wellness day on Feb. 26 from 1 to 5 p.m., with vendors from the store and other companies from around the community.

Local Scoop shares space with the Nada Shop, a zero-waste store that opened in 2019 and focuses more on bath and body products.

“It just started with trying to find vendors that aligned with the values I wanted to have in the store,” Fletcher said. “So using sustainable packaging, selling in bulk quantities so there was less packaging and more affordable prices. I wanted the food to come from as close to California as possible, and there to be a clear line of transparency of where the food was coming from if it was out of state. So wherever I could find local, and in California especially, I did, and then beyond that it’s mostly Pacific Northwest or closer.”

Fletcher had been working in various marketing roles up until last summer, then committed to Local Scoop full time.

Many customers so far are already converts to a zero-waste lifestyle. For others, there’s a learning curve. Fletcher said one of her short-term goals is “helping people understand it’s not complicated or difficult, and that it really just makes sense to reuse the containers we already bought from traditional grocery stores.”

“Long term, my goal is to expand,” she added. “Reach other parts of San Diego and maybe beyond. I don’t want this to be something that’s North County exclusive, because it’s not a price-prohibitive model. It’s meant to be really inclusive and bring all kinds of people into the sustainability space.”

Local Scoop is located at 937 S. Coast Highway 101, Suite C110, in Encinitas. For more information, visit localscoopbulkfoods.com.