Three months ago, a new organic supermarket is opened in Stratum. The name of the supermarket is Liek . The supermarket uses a circular concept. It aims at no waste.
The store aims at producing as less waste as possible. “It’s bizarre, the amount of plastic we use to prepare food. A lot of fruit and vegetables has unnecessary plastic wrappings,” begins Angelique Wijnen, founder of Liek. Liek keeps many products in their store in huge barrels. This reduces the plastic packagings. The customer can scoop the products out of these barrels himself and put them in glass jars.
Short chain
Wijnen wants to get back to basics with Liek: “This means that you form as short a chain as possible. A lot of our food from the supermarket is processed. It goes through several hands before it reaches the customer,” says Wijnen. “We want to make healthy food accessible to everyone.”
Disease
Wijnen got this idea of starting this organic supermarket almost eight years ago. She became seriously ill. “Actually, due to my illness, I started to get more involved in healthy food,” says the owner. “At one point, I found out that there many people with the same questions.”
Next to the supermarket, there is also a restaurant. The cooks use the products that are for sale in the store to make delicious dishes. “So our cooks literally go shopping in our own store,” says Wijnen. “You can also contact our chefs for inspiration for tasty dishes. “It was delicious,” says a woman, after swallowing the last piece of her sandwich. “You can taste that it’s very fresh with natural ingredients. It tastes different.”
Shop-In-Shop
The bread department is under the care of bakery Meelmuts. It is a so-called shop-in-shop. Wijnen says that this was not necessarily Liek’s concept, but that it fitted nicely. Baker Anne van Gerwen, van Meelmuts, shares the same philosophy as Wijnen.” We’re also busy buying as locally as possible”, says Van Gerwen. “The flour comes from Zeeland. The pin comes from Bergeijk and it is ground in Heeze’.
Expansion
The store and accompanying restaurant has only been open for three months, but Wijnen is cautious about expanding. “I don’t have to be an entrepreneur with twenty businesses, but I simply firmly believe in this concept. And how beautiful it would be if we could form a network with several farmers and stores throughout Brabant”.
Source: www.studio040.nl
Translation: Chaitali Sengupta, who gives ONLINE Inburgering classes.
