Though I am sure many were in hopes that this was a store where you could shop naked, alas, it is not. You've noticed that most objects, especially small pricy objects, are packaged in wrapping that contains much more material than the object itself.
Also, the approved way to get the object OUT of the packaging once you take it home is apparently to smear it in bacon grease and hand it to the neighbor's pit bull. Or a three year old child. Theoretically this prevents theft but mostly it keeps landfills in business. This is sad, because for me it is most often the little expensive objects that I want to handle/try out before I spend that much money anyhow!
So, I want to see a store where one example each of all of the products are set out on display on the shelves, chained to the shelf if necessary, or otherwise clearly labelled in bright flourescent spray paint that they belong to the store. You go into the store, you shop, you get to handle the objects you want to buy, and as you decide to buy them, you scan the barcode on the shelf, or you swipe your card through the reader under the object.
When you are done shopping, you can walk to the door in the knowledge that all your purchases will be either waiting for you at the front of the store, or can be delivered to your home later. None of them will be wrapped in more packaging than is absolutely vital to prevent damage or spillage. Yay!
(Also, I grant Zeno's wish for paragraphs!)
-- submitinkmonkey, Mar 16 2005

Naked food http://www.naturesoven.co.nz/
Link is work safe [methinksnot, May 22 2006]

conceptually partially baked Shopping_20Concept
Well looky here! Although i think that your title won more buns than my generic title. [twitch, May 10 2009]

Nada Grocery https://www.nadagrocery.com/
Something like this for groceries, in Vancouver. I like the absence of packaging, but I don't like the "no funny ingredients you can't pronounce"—see next link. [notexactly, Feb 03 2018]

"Funny ingredients you can't pronounce" in a banana https://i.imgur.com/h62w7ky.png
[notexactly, Feb 03 2018]

Yes, pretty good again! Can you make it a bit more readable with paragraphs?
-- zeno, Mar 16 2005


The items should have a special label on them to indicate "Nudist-compliant packaging". What should the symbol on the label be?
-- phundug, Mar 16 2005


A plain old Helvetica Compressed 'N', just like the 'K' for Kosher.
-- Soterios, Mar 16 2005


Naked products. Yay!
-- Worldgineer, Mar 16 2005


Can there be another store that just sells the packaging, catering to the parents of young children at christmas?
-- Basepair, Mar 16 2005


Yay to less packaging. I got this tiny little memory stick once, and the package was as big as an 8.5x11" paper.
-- omegatron, Mar 17 2005


Yeah, what is it with wrapping coconut meat in a hardhat?
-- skinflaps, Mar 17 2005


This kind of shop does exist here in the Netherlands (called "Kijkshop", where "kijk" is dutch for "view"), where you can view the products (unfortunately not handle them), enter their product code into a computer, pay electronically, and a few moments later someone hands you the goods.

However. They have not yet omitted all the extraneous packaging. It is not a nude shop. Primary reason for this is that packaging in most cases is very necessary for transport.

Fortunately there's a new tax here in the Netherlands that companies have to pay for each kilogram of non-product junk they inflict on their customers. As money is a powerful motivator, the shops here might become a lot more nude in the years to come.
-- Forthur, May 22 2006


//Though I am sure many were in hopes that this was a store where you could shop naked// Actually I was hoping that this would be a clothes shop for nudists, shelves stacked high with no trousers, no shirts and no shoes. A sort of excercise in minimalist shopping. Bun for seeing sense on packaging anyway.
-- wagster, May 22 2006


Yes [wags] I was thinking 'nudist fashions' - and I'm not talking tattoos.
-- zen_tom, May 22 2006


I thought this would be a shop where they sold nothing but sunscreen and small towels.

Oh [Forthur] the packaging that [sub] is complaining about has nothing to do with transport, it is intended for the huge self serve stores so common here, to prevent shoplifting. Literally you will see something like a USB flash drive, something 1cm x 1cm x 6cm, wrapped in a balloon of hard plastic 30cm x 10cm x 50cm.
-- Galbinus_Caeli, May 22 2006


Amazing Idea. This could also be a store for food products. I used to work in Marketing and I know that the price of a cereal box is higher than the cereal it contains... and it's the same with most products. THAT is offensive (for customers, for the environment, for third world countries where so many people could be fed from the amount of money wasted on producing more waste...)

I'm sorry. Moving to the U.S. didn't help me notice these things any less... au contraire.
-- Pericles, May 22 2006


Without trying to sound as though I'm supporting excess packaging, which I'm not, as mentioned above, to a certain degree it is necessary for transportation. Would you advocate selling cereal by the handful [Pericles]?
-- hidden truths, May 22 2006


Why not just sell cereal in a plastic bag. Heck make it a zip lock bag so it can be resealed.
-- Galbinus_Caeli, May 22 2006


While you're at it, make the cereal cost loss but taste a lot worse.
-- notmarkflynn, May 22 2006


Big packaging is usually to discourage shoplifting. The aforementioned USB drive is the size of a pack of gum, easy to steal, but it's worth a lot of money. It'd be like a jewelry store leaving its merchandise loose on the counter.

Still, it's wasteful. Better security could deal with the shoplifters. Bun.
-- 5th Earth, May 22 2006


...and then when they have you the product at the front of the store its in all that packaging, or when they send it home, its in all that packaging...
-- lolzcakes, May 23 2006


If the stores sell liquid shampoo, is it bulk containers only (the larger the container, the less packaging there is per unit volume), or BYOB (customer brings his own bottle, and pays per fluid ounce)?

Or would they only sell bar shampoo only?
-- goldbb, May 07 2009


ha. oh.wait. this idea came before mine... my bad. oh well, see link anyway for my version of this.
-- twitch, May 10 2009



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