A few years ago, while Samantha Simone was on a business trip for work, her frustration for maintaining a sustainable lifestyle on the road inspired her to find a solution to her struggle. That solution led to the creation of The Nada Shop, a zero-waste shop and refillery.
“It really boiled down to me having these everyday products and sort of just frustrated that I couldn’t go down the street and refill the bottle instead of having to toss them and go to the store and buy a brand new soap bottle, a brand new laundry bottle, a brand new bottle of face wash—the idea of refilling seemed so obvious and so simple and, why wasn’t there a shop where I could do this?,” said Samantha Simone, Owner and Founder of The Nada Shop in Encinitas.
Since opening her doors in April 2019, Simone has been trying to make sustainable living easier and more accessible for Encinitas, and San Diego residents, alike. She’s also making a big difference in the greater community. From June and July alone this year, Simone says The Nada Shop has diverted about 1,500 single-use bottles from landfills and waterways through their refill program.
“I think one of the coolest parts for me, to see personally, is when we get people that stop in asking, ‘What is this place?’, ‘What do you guys do?’ and just having that conversation and opening that dialogue up when this is something they’ve never even thought twice about. You forget, even though we live in this eco-conscious little beach town you still get people that live here or people from out of town; and they might not get anything that day or they’re still sort of grasping the concept but the coolest part to me is that the seed’s been planted,” said Simone.
Inside the shop, customers can either bring in a container or purchase one to fill with household, body care and beauty essentials. Simone says you’ll even find sustainable swaps for everyday lifestyle goods like reusable straws, beeswax food wraps even farmer’s markets totes.
As someone who is trying to live a sustainable life myself, I had to ask Samantha –what are your tips for living a more sustainable life?
“I feel like we think in these terms of absolute, it’s got to be all of nothing. But, living more “sustainably” can be as simple as maybe I’m going to walk or bike somewhere instead of drive there or I’m going to try to cut my shower time down by 5 to 10 minutes or I’m going to shop locally at my farmer’s market, all of those little things have a really big impact when you think of the lifecycle and everything that goes in behind that. And its things like that too that really create change as well.”
“They might think twice about getting that plastic bottle of water when they’re out or think twice about the ingredients that are in their products next time they’re making a purchase and to me that’s the coolest part about having a physical store is just being able to have those conversations with people within the community and I feel like it’s in those micro-moments where big change can happen and that’s the coolest part to me, at least.”
Samantha Simone, Owner and Founder, The Nada Shop Encinitas
Goodonya: “It’s an all organic food café, really good, high-quality food. They have a lot of eco-friendly measures within their food business so they don’t use single-use plastic, everything can either be composted, I really like their values. As far as the quality of their food and ingredients, as well as the things they do for the environment, and it’s just delicious. I go there probably once or twice a week. I love them.”
Ironsmith Coffee Roasters: “Best coffee in town, locally-owned. You’ll see the owner in there a few times a week when you go to get your coffee. Super delicious. I don’t even like matcha and they make a mean matcha, it is delicious.”
The Rising Co.: “It’s a co-op community…it’s a bunch of different local artisans and vendors and brands that have sort of a pop-up in there. And it’s all co-op run. We are actually a part of it.”
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