Latest news with #MilieuMarket
Winnipeg Free Press
4 days ago
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
Milieu Market refills clean need
Wolseley's newest bar is self-serve. However, ales and stouts don't gush from its taps. Laundry detergent, dish soap and fabric softener flow out. Milieu Market opened its first Winnipeg storefront over August long weekend. It's a sharp turn from the United States expansion owner Jules Plett had envisioned. 'We needed to focus on staying in Canada,' Plett said, recalling early-2025 tariff threats from our southern neighbour. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS Founder Jules Plett at Milieu Market, a refill station for health and wellness products in Wolseley which opened over the weekend. The store got its start in Steinbach four years ago, and this is the first Winnipeg location. Instead of unrolling her company's lotions and soaps in the U.S., she's filled dispensable jugs and stocked 992 Portage Ave. Free containers are stacked in one corner. One-gallon bottles of hand sanitizer gel and body wash sit on shelves near natural deodorants and skincare products. Plett, 28, began her refill business four years ago. She'd begun using refill stations while travelling in an effort to reduce waste; upon returning to Steinbach during the COVID-19 pandemic, she found her options limited. Milieu Market's first storefront appeared in Steinbach. It now has a refill station in Altona Mall. Wolseley holds the third shop, with spouts for household products protruding from a refill bar. 'I'm just excited to be here,' Plett said. U.S. President Donald Trump's warnings kept her focused on Canada; the spring closure of Planet Pantry, a similar business at The Forks, led her to see a gap in the Winnipeg market. (Another refill company, Refill Market, operates at 634 Notre Dame Ave.) Milieu Market sold wares at the Wolseley Farmers Market in past years. 'The people, the community in this area, they're just so passionate about what I'm doing,' Plett said. 'I want to be closest to where the customers are.' So when the 900-sq.-ft. space opened — with a kitchenette in the back for soap making — Plett leapt. Nearly all the items inside Milieu Market are Canadian-made. Plett launched her in-house brand, Greenland and Co., in 2022. She began selling Greenland and Co. shampoo and conditioner bars on Aug. 1, in part, because U.S. products have become too costly. 'Tariffs are bouncing on and off, but not for personal care,' Plett relayed. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS Plett aims to open more refill shops, or help others to do so, to help reduce waste and pass the savings on to customers. She'd been working with a formulator for roughly a year on shampoo and conditioner bars. She hadn't found a Canadian product she loved, she said, and the U.S. brand she stocks has since increased in price through Canadian counter-tariffs. What was a roughly $42 bar has jumped to a cost of $50. 'We didn't want to cut them from our line, but it did get really expensive,' Plett said, noting she hasn't added the full 25 per cent cost increase to the customer price. Prism Kombucha joins the local businesses represented within Milieu Market. It has its own refill station in a corner. 'We're excited to be part of Milieu Market,' said co-owner Colin Rémillard. 'It's an awesome way to have people consuming more kombucha… but it's also reducing packaging.' Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. Milieu Market is a welcome addition to the Portage Avenue strip, said Heidi Bao, an employee at neighbour business Brite Agencies. 'It makes more convenience for the community,' Bao said. Plett aims to open more refill shops — either her own or by helping others. 'Any way we can do that, that's definitely my goal,' she said. Gabrielle PichéReporter 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. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Winnipeg Free Press
08-05-2025
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
Steinbach refill centre Milieu Market seeks Winnipeg presence
Over the past year, Milieu Market has shifted its expansion plan away from the United States and adjusted its messaging to accommodate a 'tradwife' trend. 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. Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. Sign up for The Warm-Up '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 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.
