A refill store, or zero waste store, sells food, soap and cleaners by weight from bulk bins, into containers the customer brings or the store provides. Starting one means four things beyond a lease. A retail food license, and in Wisconsin, the example's state, grinding peanut butter or packing bulk into the store's own bags is food processing, which moves the license from $20 to $80 plus a weights and measures fee. The container question: the 2022 FDA Food Code lets a store refill a food container it handed out itself, cleaned, sanitized and inspected, while a customer's own jar is on its list only for drinks, so ask your health department how it treats customer containers for bulk food before you build the store around them. Selling by net weight: each container is weighed empty first, the tare, on a scale certified for trade, so the customer pays for the oats and not the jar. And bin turn: a fill of nuts or flour has to sell before it goes stale. In the example below, a Viroqua refill store finds its walnut bin lasts 44 days against 30 days of freshness. Below are the steps, the rules, the example, and a free bin calculator.
The short version
- A refill store sells by weight from bulk bins, into the customer's containers or the store's.
- In Wisconsin, grinding or packing in-store is food processing: $80 plus a $25 weights and measures fee, not $20.
- The 2022 Food Code refills food containers the store gave out, after cleaning and sanitizing.
- Customers' own containers for food: ask your health department first.
- Weigh each container empty, so the customer pays for net weight.
- Bulk bins show the label or a sign with the ingredients, in quarter-inch letters.
- A fill has to sell before it goes stale; nuts and flours first.
- TaroStack tracks each bin's stock by the pound and its supplier's lot. More below.
The steps
| Step | What to settle |
|---|---|
| The license | Retail food, and whether grinding, packing or a coffee grinder makes it food processing |
| Containers | Customers' own, store jars with a deposit, or paper bags, and what your health department allows |
| Bins | Gravity bins for dry goods, scoop bins with scoops, pumps or taps for liquids |
| Scales | Certified for trade, with a way to record the tare on each container |
| The range | Staples that turn fast first; nuts, seeds and flours in smaller bins |
| Non-food | Soaps and cleaners by weight, each with its label shown at the bin |
| Suppliers | Bulk distributors for staples, local roasters and mills for the rest |
Margins by markup are in keystone pricing, and price signs in shelf tag template.
The rules
| Rule | Where |
|---|---|
| Food processing | Includes grinding, mixing, packing and packaging (Wis. Stat. 97.01) |
| License fee | $20 with no processing; $40 under $25,000 of food sales with processing; $80 plus a $25 weights and measures fee from $25,000, processing that isn't potentially hazardous food (97.30) |
| Agent cities and counties | Set their own fees (97.30) |
| Returned containers | Refilled at the store only if the store provided them, after cleaning, sanitizing and an employee's inspection (Food Code 2022, 3-304.17) |
| Customers' own containers | In the Food Code, for drinks under conditions and water machines; ask your health department about food |
| Self-service | Ready-to-eat food with utensils or dispensing methods that protect it (3-306.13) |
| Net weight | Weight means net weight; solid goods sell by weight, liquids by measure or weight (Wis. Stat. 98.01, 98.06) |
| Scales | Commercial scales meet the NIST specifications (98.03) |
| Bulk labeling | The bulk container's label in view, or a sign with the ingredients in quarter-inch letters (21 CFR 101.100(a)(2)) |
The license in more detail is in retail food license. Other states adopt the Food Code with their own changes. This is general information, not legal advice.
An example: a Viroqua refill store
Ridge Road Refill Co., a made-up refill store in Viroqua, Wisconsin, I use in these examples, grinds peanut butter in the store and sells store jars with a deposit, so it applies for the processing license, $80 plus the $25 weights and measures fee on the state's schedule; a county or city licensing as the state's agent sets its own. Its opening costs:
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Gravity and scoop bins, 40 | $4,800 |
| Shelving and fixtures | $6,000 |
| Two scales certified for trade, with label printers | $1,800 |
| Peanut butter grinder | $2,400 |
| Opening inventory | $12,000 |
| Store jars and bottles to sell | $1,500 |
| Build-out and signs | $8,000 |
| Lease deposit and first month | $5,400 |
| Register and card reader | $900 |
| License and weights and measures fee | $105 |
| Total to start | $42,905 |
Then the bins, after the first month:
| Bin | Holds | Cost, price a lb | Sold a week | Margin | Days a fill lasts | Keeps fresh |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rolled oats | 25 lb | $1.10, $2.49 | 30 lb | 56% | 5.8 | 60 days |
| Organic almonds | 25 lb | $6.80, $11.99 | 12 lb | 43% | 14.6 | 30 days |
| Walnut halves | 25 lb | $7.50, $13.49 | 4 lb | 44% | 43.8 | 30 days |
| Coffee beans | 10 lb | $7.20, $14.99 | 9 lb | 52% | 7.8 | 21 days |
| Peanut butter, ground here | 10 lb | $3.10, $6.99 | 14 lb | 56% | 5.0 | 14 days |
| Chia seeds | 10 lb | $4.20, $9.99 | 1.5 lb | 58% | 46.7 | 90 days |
| Dish soap, by the pound | 40 lb | $1.20, $3.49 | 12 lb | 66% | 23.3 | 365 days |
The walnut bin holds 25 pounds and sells 4 a week, so a fill lasts 44 days and goes stale before it empties; filling it with 10 pounds brings that to 17.5 days. Chia is slow too, but keeps 90 days. Peanut butter has the shortest life and sells fastest, so the grinder's hopper takes a few pounds at a time. What spoils anyway is in grocery store shrink.
Get the calculator
Download the refill store bin calculator. One sheet: each bin's size, cost and price a pound and pounds sold a week, and the margin, the gross profit a week and the days a fill lasts work out, against how long the item keeps fresh, with too-slow bins in red. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
Forty bins become 150, each filled from a bag with its own lot and date, and the question changes from "what's this bin's margin" to "how much is left in the back, and which bag is next".
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack tracks each bin's stock by the pound, with the lot of the bag it came from.
Buy by the bag, sell by the pound. Oats come in 50-pound bags and soap in 5-gallon pails; stock is kept by the pound, and TaroStack does the conversion.
Lots and dates. Each bag is received with its supplier's lot and best-by date, and the oldest goes into the bin first. If a supplier recalls a lot of almonds, the lot is on record.
Stale stock on record. What's thrown out is an adjustment with its reason, expired or spoiled, reported by reason and item, so the walnut problem shows up in numbers.
Reorders in days of cover. The reorder list shows each item in days of cover, with each supplier's lead time and minimum. TaroStack connects to Square.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Pounds left in the back | Lift the bags | Stock by the pound |
| Which almond lot is in the bin | Unknown | Lots, oldest first |
| What went stale | Not written down | Adjustments, by reason |
| What to reorder | Walk the bins | Reorder list in days of cover |
Receiving, lots, counting and the reorder list are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.