‘Sustainable’ supermarket doubles sales in less than year

Customers at the “sustainable” supermarket Yes Future won’t find single use plastic bags. Products are bought in bulk and carried in vessels brought from the house, or recyclable or biodegradable containers from the establishment.

“We have aimed for the client to be able to shop in bulk in a sustainable way,” explained Alejandro Martínez, one of the cofounders of the business. “It’s the future we must move towards,” he added.

September will mark Yes Future’s one year anniversary in the Barcelona neighbourhood of San Antoni. The supermarket has been received well, said Martínez, pointing out that in less than a year it has doubled the number of monthly sales.

Doubled sales

When the project began, the business invoiced 650 receipts per month, but now invoiced between 1,250 and 1,300 monthly sales receipts. This increase coincided with the appearance of the supermarket in the media at the start of the year, from when sales grew by between 3% and 5% each month.

No fresh produce

Martínez also asserted that Yes Future is not just “another buy-in-bulk store” but rather a “supermarket” where you can find “nearly everything”: from pulses, pastas and rice, drinks, cleaning products and personal hygiene items.

It does not sell, however, fresh produce like fruit, vegetables, or milk but is looking into including some such items in its inventory. All its products are ecological and most of them are sourced from close proximity.

Expansion ambitions

Throughout its first year of activity Yes Future has continued to expand the quantity of products it offers to the point it no longer has enough space for all of them at its location on Carrer Viladomat 66. Martínez put forward that they are considering expanding it, but points out that for now it is time to "settle" the project before taking the next step. For now, the only founders of Yes Future are working in the store. The supermarket co-founder also points out how another objective of selling online.