Checkout: Nude Foods Market takes the P out of CPG

From single-use plastic packaging to unsold and spoiled food, grocery stores generate a gross amount of waste. So do grocery shoppers, both by purchasing all that plastic and by tossing out much of the food they buy.

This sad reality, with its dire environmental ramifications, has always driven Verity Noble nuts. The Boulder, Colorado-based entrepreneur and zero-waste evangelist became determined to devise a more sustainable, less wasteful system of sourcing, selling and shopping for groceries.

Joining forces with local businessman Matt Arnold and fellow sustainability advocate Rachel Irons, Noble turned her dream into a reality in 2020. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the trio launched Nude Foods Market as a delivery-only, zero-waste grocer in Boulder.

With its innovative business model and super-sustainable sourcing, Nude Foods was a hit and grew like mad. Then in 2021, the co-founders opened a brick-and-mortar store in Boulder (also a success), followed by a second, 2,100-square foot market in Denver in May and a has few more Front Range locations coming soon. Here, Noble shares the inspiring Nude Foods story.

Nude Foods Market founders, from left, Matt Arnold, Rachel Irons and Verity Noble

What compelled you to co-found Nude Foods Market?

Verity Noble: I’m obsessed with zero-waste. People think of plastic as disposable, but every piece of plastic ever created still exists today. We just keep stuffing it into the Earth. And because we have a very efficient trash system, we don’t see all the plastic waste we’ve thrown away, so we just keep doing it. So for me, the grocery store was always a horrible experience, with so much packaging around and everyone putting their vegetables in plastic bags, which they didn’t need to do. I knew there had to be a better way.

Related:Checkout: Durango Natural Foods Co-op still thrives after 50 years

How did you connect with Matt and Rachel?

VN: Matt owns some commercial kitchens; Rachel was his kitchen manager at the time. He was leasing a space at the Broker Inn [in Boulder] that he couldn’t use for a kitchen, so he asked Rachel what they should do with it. She suggested a bulk store. Then Matt’s baker said, “You guys have to meet my friend Verity—she really wants to open a zero-waste store, too.” We were introduced in December 2019, chatted and decided to get on with this. We planned to open the store in June 2020, but in March 2020, COVID happened.

Yikes. Tough time to open a new store.

VN: We thought, should we just can this project for a bit and wait until this blows over? We decided no, let’s try something different—let’s move to a delivery model. That was actually amazing for us because we didn’t need to fill a whole store or staff it. We could offer products in a just-in-time fashion. When someone orders something, we could get it in, fill up jars and deliver them.

We started off with probably 20 products, and we delivered by bike, which was fabulous. Then customers would ask if we could get this or that, and soon it was 40 products, then 50, then probably 1,000 products by the end of that first year.

With the delivery business booming, why pivot back to brick-and-mortar?  

VN: Our time at the Broker Inn was up, and we were looking for another warehouse to continue delivery. A space came up [for lease] that had a store attached. We thought, huh, should we open that store after all? We spent three weeks deciding, then eventually we opened it.

Did any of you have prior retail experience?

VN: Matt had the commercial kitchens. Rachel had a wild boar company. This is my third company, so I had a lot of entrepreneurial experience. But none of us had retail experience—at all. So we’re building the plane while flying it.

What was it like delving into retail?

VN: It was a big change, like going from one job to two. Suddenly, we had to have a fully stocked, fully staffed store all of the time. It was really challenging. But it also meant we could talk to our customers much more. It created a lovely feeling of community. People really wanted the in-store experience and love coming here. Now in-store shopping is about 80% of our business, and online is about 20%.

How does your business model work?

VN: We have a very unique way of doing things, and we believe we are the most sustainable grocery store in the world. We get in products in huge quantities, then disseminate them into reusable, returnable glass jars for people to buy. When they’re done with the jars, they bring them back, and we wash, sanitize and refill them. Customers pay a rental fee per jar, and when they return it, they get that back minus a small cleaning and refill fee. Or they become a member for $15 a month and don’t pay rental fees.

What about products that don’t fit in a jar?

VN: Oh, we have lots of different sizes, shapes and types of containers: clamshells, reusable egg cartons, bread bags, glass milk bottles, 32-ounce kombucha bottles, 16-ounce salad dressing bottles. People can also bring in their own containers, but most use ours because it’s so convenient.

Do you have trouble with your containers not coming back?

VN: No, we have a 97% return rate. It’s amazing. When we get a new customer, we expect that they’ll maintain 25 to 100 jars in their cupboards, so the jars are always out for a time. But then they come back, and it cycles.

What kinds of products to you offer?

VN: We have a lot of products in a very small space—we’re almost a full-service store. But we offer only one [item per category], so we don’t have multiple brands competing against each other. We don’t have five brands of rice, for example. We have one brand of rice—the best, most sustainable brand.

Very cool that sustainability steers every sourcing decision.

VN: Yes, we’re focused not only on this low-waste experience but also sourcing the most sustainable option. For example, we stock wild boar, which no other grocery store that I’m aware of does. The reason is because wild boar is an invasive species causing enormous environmental damage, so it must be culled. So rather than growing animals specifically for food, which takes up a lot of resources and is generally very cruel, we’re creating a market for wild boar—and people absolutely love it.

We also have a full-time chef, so we do a lot of Nude-made products. Those are also low-waste because we use up food that isn’t beautiful. We offer three different prepared meals each week—the best-value meals on the market.

Do you work with local vendors?

VN: Yes, a lot of the companies we work with are local to Boulder.

Are some not yet retail ready in the traditional sense, but because they don’t need attractive packaging, they are ready for Nude Foods?

VN: Absolutely. We’re often the growing ground for companies in that we’re their first retailer. We hold their hand and coach them as they work out how to produce their products at a larger scale.

Did you always plan on expanding to Denver?

VN: Yes. Grocery is such a low-margin [business] that it really doesn’t work unless you have multiple locations, so we had to expand quickly. We had the Boulder store open for two years before we opened in Denver, and that’s going really well. We hope to open a second Denver location in the next year or so. We’re planning on five locations on the Front Range in the next four years.

When you look back at this journey, what makes you proudest?

VN: The fact that we’ve saved more than half a million pieces of packaging already. People tell me all the time they went from taking their trash out three times a week to once every two weeks. It’s very tangible. Cutting plastic waste is super hard—it’s everywhere—so it can feel overwhelming. But in this instance, all people have to do is change where they grocery shop—that’s it! It’s that easy.

Nude Foods Market
3233 Walnut St.
Boulder, CO 80301
720.815.5588

3538 W. 44th Ave.
Denver, CO 80211
720.335.7867

nudefoodsmarket.com

Want to know more about sustainability and merchandising for your store? The Insights for Retailers agenda of retail-specific education sessions at Newtopia Now, New Hope Network's new trade show for the organic and natural products industry. To learn more and to register, visit the website.