HYDERABAD: Ever since it dawned on us that the everyday choices we make, make or break the planet’s green ecosystem, many of us have been putting in great efforts to look for sustainable alternatives. But one of the biggest troubles has been to look for all that we need from different kinds of stores — one for beauty and the body, one for haircare, one for the kids, another for food, another for nutrition, etc. While sustainable markets in the city have attempted to solve this issue, SustainKart has gone a mile ahead to make things simpler than they are - an offline store that’s a one-stop shop for all sustainable options.
Founder and model Shilpa Reddy opens up about her offline store where people can walk in any time to choose from a myriad of healthy, organic and sustainable options. Launched on Monday, at Jubilee Hills, the store has more than what you’re looking for. The prominent advocate of sustainable living traces the journey of the store saying, “When I started a YouTube channel on leading a sustainable lifestyle, I figured that people were more than willing to look for sustainable alternatives to what they are already using, but they did not know where to buy from, as most things get scattered in a regular market.
Today, nobody has time to waste, looking for sustainable products in a hybrid supermarket that has a mix of everything. That’s when I saw the need to create an ecosystem, a platform where everything that you buy is safe for yourself, your family and the planet. It becomes easy for people to go to a place and trust that everything sold there is completely safe. It makes shopping stress-free shopping, without confusion.”
SustainKart has come a long way through its e-commerce website in the past year and a half, enough to get great funding and loyal, satisfied customers.
“When we saw the growing demand for our initiative, we realised it was time we went into the neighbourhood where people have easy access to the products and experience. We believe it would be a lot easier than the website. We have made shopping for sustainable products here safe, being very consumerism conscious. One can find an alternative to everything that you can use in a safe form. Through this, we are also working to encourage small-time businesses.”
You can walk into the store to find food, nutrition, skincare, home decor, pet care, toys, furniture and everything sustainable, cruelty-free, organic, natural, with no pesticides, no chemicals and no preservatives. “We go through the certification of the products that we sell just to make sure they are not ‘greenwashed’. Every product is thoroughly checked, only then the product is eligible to be on our online or offline store. My co-founder Kanthi Dutt has played a huge role in realising this massive goal,” says she. By the end of next year, Shilpa is planning to make the number of offline stores to 60 — across different malls, cities, states and airports!