Steinbach refill centre Milieu Market seeks Winnipeg presence
Its latest focus: finding a Winnipeg storefront.
'We are pretty passionate about bringing refilleries to … communities that don't have options,' said Jules Plett, Milieu Market founder.
SUPPLIED
Milieu Market's products in Steinbach.
Winnipeg has a new gap. Planet Pantry dispensed soaps and detergents into customer-brought containers over the past four years; however, the low-waste company closed its Johnston Terminal location at The Forks last week.
Milieu Market, which has a similar business based on home essentials to health and hygiene products, bought Planet Pantry's remaining stock and hopes to attract its customer base.
It's eyeing St. Boniface and Wolseley as storefront potentials. For now, it'll truck its goods into Winnipeg each Sunday, offering curbside delivery to clients who book appointments online.
Plett began Milieu Market in Steinbach four years ago. She found herself parked in the city, near family, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Previously, she'd travelled North America in her camper van. The landscape photographer spent many days in forests and national parks.
'You don't really have a place to put all your garbage,' Plett said. 'It became very apparent how much waste I was going through.'
She made an effort to live more sustainably, Plett said, which included refilling household cleaners at specialty stores.
Those stores weren't available when she moved to Steinbach. So in 2021, she launched Milieu Market in a trailer. Later that year, she swapped the trailer for a brick-and-mortar shop in the southeast Manitoba city.
A second location in Altona Mall and an in-house brand, Greenland and Co., have since been added to Milieu Market.
'It's definitely popular,' said Henry Suderman, property manager of the Altona shopping centre.
Milieu Market attracts a specific crowd — often, patrons are health-conscious, he said.
The company's primary messaging has always highlighted sustainability. Its website advertises '4 Rs' — reduce, reuse, recycle and refill.
The mission remains, Plett said, adding, 'There has been a huge shift for shopping natural with the tradwife trend. We're catering towards that.'
Women participating in the 'tradwife' lifestyle, as it's termed online, focus on homemaking and their version of 1950s gender roles.
Plett has noticed a general shift in consumers' focus: Milieu Market patrons are concerned about how products affect their bodies, rather than how items affect the planet.
She's tracked declining demand among her customers for vegan items and an increase for animal-derived products, like beef tallow. Made from rendered fat, it's surged in popularity online as a moisturizer or soap.
'Sustainability and natural go hand in hand,' Plett stated. 'Whether or not they care about the sustainable aspect, what they're doing is helping the planet.'
Often, people on opposite sides of the political spectrum care about the same issues — they're just framed differently, said Sean Buchanan, a University of Manitoba business professor.
The desire for 'natural' products recall a homesteader movement, where individuals leave cities and go off-grid, caring for their own animals and growing their own produce, he said.
'This is what I almost see the trend becoming,' Buchanan said, adding homesteaders' political ideologies vary.
Refill stations like Milieu Market would create a bigger environmental impact if done at a mass scale. For example, if grocery stores had such set-ups for their liquid products, Buchanan said.
Milieu Market is doing 'the right kind of thing,' he added.
Driving to a refill station versus walking to a grocery store for non-reusable products is also a consideration, he said.
Milieu Market seeks a roughly 1,000-square-foot shop in Winnipeg. It inquired at Johnston Terminal, the former home of Planet Pantry. Despite several empty storefronts, only one space wasn't leased at the time; it wasn't suitable for Milieu Market, Plett said.
A new tenant will take Planet Pantry's place. Details on the upcoming arrival weren't available Wednesday.
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'It was all really just timing and my own personal life,' Sam Soloway, Planet Pantry's president, said of the closure. 'It didn't have anything to do with business or lack of support.'
She called the sale of her items to Milieu Market a 'good thing.' Her business diverted nearly 40,000 plastic containers, she added.
Planet Pantry and Milieu Market bulk ordered some products together. The latter business accepts Planet Pantry gift cards and took on its loyalty program.
Milieu Market had intended to sell its house brand in the U.S., but backed away from the plan recently due to the ongoing trade war, Plett said.
gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com
Gabrielle Piché
Reporter
Gabrielle Piché reports on business for the Free Press . She interned at the Free Press and worked for its sister outlet, Canstar Community News , before entering the business beat in 2021. Read more about Gabrielle.
Every piece of reporting Gabrielle produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press 's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press 's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
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