FAQS and How To Get In Touch
Frequently Asked Questions!
Not at all. We have paper food produce bags available if needed. We can put your items into those for weighing. Otherwise, we have a selection of glass bottles and containers for purchase, if you need for first time refill or you have forgotten your containers.
We measure everything in the shop by weight to remain consistent and accurate. By weighing liquids, customers can have as much or little as they wish.
By charging per mls, we would have to ask you to bring marked or labelled bottles and restrict refill quantities to certain amounts.
To be more flexible and accommodate customers specific requirements, ‘buying by weight’ works out most appropriate.
Harriet’s of Hove sell around 500 products at any given time. Of these, most items are bought in bulk and are decanted into customer containers, therefore meaning prices can be made comparable to most supermarkets.
Due to uniqueness and/or legalities around selling some products, prices are more than an average supermarket item for likeness and quality.
Herbs and spices usually cost less in comparison, as customers don’t pay for the costly individual packaging each time they need an item. Also, money can be saved by just buying what is needed, rather than what the supermarket dictates you buy in packets.
However, many of our products are handmade/locally made and will inevitably cost a little more than their mass produced equivalent. Buying this way is a great way to keep money in local economies and helps support local makers create and maintain a business.
When shopping at Harriet’s of Hove, many customers find where they may have paid a little more on some items, they certainly make back on others. So there is no clear cut answer to this commonly asked question. But we certainly aim to compete with supermarket prices, as we like to show sustainable shopping doesn’t always have to cost you more. In fact, it can save you money in some areas of your shop.
Any plastics Harriet’s of Hove acquires through buying products is saved, cleaned (if required) and taken for recycling by Paper Round Brighton. This is a paid for service that we pay for ourselves in full.
An extremely small amount of plastics will go into our general waste, for incineration by Brighton and Hove City Council. Again, we pay for this service. This may include plastic tape from cardboard boxes, mixed material labels and tags from suppliers that cannot be recycled and any plastic that is heavily food contaminated and cannot be cleaned.
We absolutely pride ourselves on the massive decrease of plastics we create during your shop and for ourselves as a business. But there is a way for us to become 100% completely plastic free.
When we do work with a company that does not offer a plastic-free alternative to packing and packaging, we offer all these materials to local businesses that can reuse or find a repurpose for it ourselves.
We also always extend conversations to suppliers to offer a plastic free alternative to the way they do business and supply goods. We have suggested and encouraged some companies to make some significant changes and can always assure customers that our plastic-free ethos is not just customer facing. Much work goes on ‘behind the scenes’ to push for progressive change and improvements in this area.
For us, transparency is key! And we always welcome questions and conversation about plastics and how we deal with what we get in store.
We make our local deliveries on a Tuesday and Friday between 5pm and 8pm. We find these are the times most convenient times for our customers.
Please check you are in our local delivery area before selecting our delivery service during checkout. You’ll also see an option in the checkout to select a delivery day.
Yes! We love dogs!
Please keep any dogs on leads and on the floor in the shop. We ask that you don’t carry you dog or let them roam about.
Be aware that when the shop is very busy, you may be asked to wait or to leave dog with someone outside.
As a refilling store we often have some spills of foods on the floor that your dog may fancy eating! Please be aware of this and make sure to keep an eye on your dog.
