Reno’s Eco-Friendly Refillery and Gift Shop: Replenish
Replenish is located in downtown Reno in The Basement, a small shopping center underneath the West Elm furniture store. While The Basement has only Mom-and-Pop businesses, the city of Reno has shown so much love in supporting these independent businesses through a global pandemic. In early 2021 Replenish opened at the back of The Basement and brought something new to the area— a locally owned Mom-and Pop with everything eco-friendly.
This business has everything from shampoo and conditioner bars, Tupperware for kiddos to take their school lunch the eco-friendly way, to refillable bottle for things like soap and other shower care liquids. A personal favorite of mine are the recyclable produce bags. I have two now and they are roomie enough for all of my produce when grocery shopping — one less plastic bag!
Business owner Melinda Brown shares what sparked this business idea, what her goals are and what she foresees for her business.
“Small changes lead to big differences” — Melinda Brown
Q: What was your goal when you opened an eco-friendly business?
A: “Our goal goes along with our mission statement which reads “Small changes lead to big differences”, so basically just starting small, if someone decides to start using the “unpaper towels” then that alone is a difference and one person is keeping more paper from going into a landfill. We want to keep single use plastics out of our landfills and to reuse as much as we can. I have always been environmentally conscious but I grew up surfing and one of the first eco-friendly places I went into, Ethos in Capitola, CA., is on the California coast and that is what really sparked this idea.Offering things like refillable shampoo and small things like that, which we offer here at Replenish, had never occurred to me till I went into this shop and saw all of the eco-friendly products they offered on such a large scale.”
Q: What methods do you use to promote Replenish?
A: “I mainly use social media. Instagram. We had the local news come down and do a story on us when we first opened but since then all on social media. I actually run all of the online promoting and marketing too for the company.”
Q: Do you see yourself expanding your business to new areas or keeping it local?
A: “As it stands today, I want to keep it local in Reno, but I am always open to expansion. I like keeping it local and in The Basement because there is a lot of community around us. I like being a part of this amazing community and being in touch with who our customers are and what they want. While I would like to expand I wouldn’t want to lose that contact and relationship with my customers because I value that part of the business so much.”
Q: How many employees and vendors do you have? Did this fluctuate with Covid-19?
A: “Currently I have two part time employees and only one has left since Covid-19, I have been very fortunate compared to other small businesses and their struggles throughout the pandemic.For vendors, I would say at least around thirty, I know we have three local in Reno, a few in Sacramento, three or four in Hawaii and several others along the West Coast.”
Q: How has Covid-19 affected your profits and overall business?
A: “I don’t think we have really been too affected by it since we opened during the pandemic, but since we are in The Basement there has been less foot traffic because some people don’t want to risk being in an underground space with little windows.”
Q: What is your long term goal for Replenish?
A: My biggest long term goal would be if I had to get a bigger space because so many people were onboard with going eco-friendly, expansion would be amazing if it was due to growth and change. Not necessarily growth in location but growth in size and getting more people involved and getting the full support of a community.”
- Instagram: replenish.reno
- replenish.reno@gmail.com
- 50 S Virginia St Suite 3 / Reno, Nevada 89501
- (In The Basement, towards the back)
