Re-Up Refill Shop

The Re-Up Refill Shop is a very unusual and unique shop designed to be ecologically responsible while providing great products as well as groceries and other household staples

Love having a local refill store I can go to! They have a great selection of cleaning/household products and skincare, not just grocery! Everything is super convenient and well designed for use such as their provided funnels to refill spice containers. Hope it stays around permanently! It’s close to Trader Joe’s so super easy to incorporate into a routine of getting some things at Trader Joe’s and some things at the refill store. Plus the punch card reward system is a nice fun bonus!

This shop means I do not have to go to Safeway or any corporate chain stores. The staff is knowledgeable and friendly. I go often to get my kombucha refill with new flavors and same for the yogurt. Both are delicious. If I were more of a cook, I would make even better use of their great selection of pantry items. But I do get most of my non-food stuff there. Things like body wash, hand soap, dish soap, tooth paste tabs, laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent. And it is also in a great neighborhood.

Love the intent of reducing the amount of plastic packaging and waste I’m putting out into the world. Appreciate the careful selection of merchandise as I am scent and chemical sensitive. I use the laundry detergent (lavender is my fave), a couple Bronner’s products, household cleaners and picked up a pack of cotton face cleansing pads last time I was in. Took home a free bar of soap for being a frequent shopper. Beautifully displayed items, friendly and helpful staff. Bring your own bottles to fill (weigh them before filling) or pick up affordable branded glass bottles and dispense accessories. Big fan of the whole vibe. Appreciate the staff answering all my questions, offering suggestions. All the way around great experiences so far!

Well-stocked and fairly affordable (5/5 Green Stars)
The Re-Up Refill Shop, based in Oakland, California, offers zero-waste solutions for most of the stuff that you might need for your home. It opened in April 2020, just as the Covid lockdown began, so it escaped my notice at first. (Also, it initially opened in West Oakland and then later moved to Rockridge) I’m sure the timing was tough on business but things seem to be to taking off now that the students are back in town. It may be just my echo chamber speaking but I think there are at least a few people who are sick of all the packaging waste that was generated during lockdown. Perhaps the pendulum will swing the other way now…

It’s frustrating to see stores that focus on ethical goods (minimal waste, vegan food, fair trade items) open up and then eventually close down. I think a good part of it is that we develop habits of shopping in larger stores that eventually become locked in. Well, hopefully the end of lockdown will help us unlock that habit and create new ones :) The other issue is that many of the items at these stores simply cost more than we are willing to pay. I found that most of the things I bought at the Re-Up Refill Shop were reasonably priced, with some exceptions. I think it’s worth considering that good low-waste stores like Re-Up don’t just stock bulk items, they select items that meet certain ethical criteria.
I’m giving the Re-up Refill shop 5 out of 5 Green Stars for social and environmental impact. Here’s a list of Re-Up’s own set of standards:
We prioritize local
We prioritize circular (our vendors take back their containers, washing and reusing them)
We prioritize minority–owned businesses
We prioritize b corps & businesses invested in their workers and community
We prioritize package free & plastic free
We prioritize high quality products that work well
We always choose non-toxic for all our cleaning products and certified organic for all our food products.

The Re-Up Refills website provides a short profile on many of the brands that are stocked in the store. For example, here’s the description of Sappo Hill Soap:
Sappo Hill remains true to their old fashioned master soapmaking values, using cold-process methods to make plant-based castile soaps. Sappo Hill’s Soap is all natural, animal free, cruelty-free, and uses only organic ingredients. Each soap is hand-crafted, wire-cut, air-dried, and aged to create a long-lasting hardworking soap; kettle made and cut by hand daily in Ashland, Oregon.

The Re-Up Refills founders have worked in waste reduction projects for more than a decade, including ecological farms and an eco-hauling company.

You all gotta head down to Re-Up Refill in Rockridge because shopping here supports local businesses and cuts down on plastic waste. They have glass jars and bottles for everything they sell, so you can stock up on cleaning supplies, oils and honey, dry goods, and even get kombucha on tap. Also a shout out to their growing supply of locally made nutrient dense foods from our friends at Three Stone Hearth. Everything in glass. Reduce & reuse!

The store was clean and well organized. The staff are friendly. I go here regularly for basics. I got to use my reward card and on this visit I was gifted a free bar of soap. I hope this model of a store expands! I know that I have saved innumerable plastic bottles since I started shopping here!

Love this place! amazing products, prices, and I can get almost all of my non-produce staples here! GF pasta, oats, olive oil, shampoo, tamari sauce...you name it! they have so much, and I just bring an old bag, mason jar, or cleaned out sauce bottle and refill it there. its awesome, and I love this place. will be shopping there all the time now.

I love the vibe, people, and products at Re-up! They are so friendly and make the refill process seamless. Walking into that store always makes me feel calm (and like I want to buy everything on the shelves). Highly recommend this gem in the East Bay!

Re-up is the real deal when it comes to being a consumer who wants to avoid plastics. I could tell from the beginning when they first started that they made relationships with distributors to make the bulk purchase and reuse their containers that then customers would be reusing their containers, full circle. The other most important part is re-up has amazing products. Amazing olive oil and vinegars, wonderful bath products that are natural/ things that I would go out of my way to source but you can find all in one place. If you buy in bulk you can get a discount and now I only go to the grocer and farmers market for food n produce and everything else from re up. I’m very lucky to have a store like this within biking distance (-:

This shop is fantastic! While it took me a little getting used to, I now love heading back to Re-up to refill our home goods. We now purchase tea, dry goods, olive oil, cleaning products, and our personal care products from Re-up. I especially love their facial serum, facial oil and body wash!

While I think it’s important to reduce waste as much as possible- I also just really love buying high quality products that have already been vetted!!! It’s easy shopping!

I wish there was a re-up store everywhere! I love refilling my cleaning products here. It’s really helping me to get away from plastic packaging. They also carry beauty products and bulk grocery items. Browsing the store shows me what is possible! I plan to incorporate more of these products in my daily life. I also like the vibe of the store.

I am slowly converting many of my household products to refillable from Re-Up. I’m really glad they are in in my area as it makes stocking up again super convenient. It feels good to minimize my plastic consumption and the products they offer are great. I also find the bottles/containers in the amber colored glass to be very aesthetically pleasing but it’s also that you can use your own preferred container. Highly recommend supporting this shop and making the switch the refillable.

We're pleased that they keep increasing their inventory. So far we've appreciated the quality of the goods: coffee, dish soap, laundry soap, fancy sheep yogurt, and the Muji-like products. I appreciate that all products also come unscented so that we can leave as is or customize based on their essential oils. Parking is plentiful on the street when we go on week days

I found wonderful gifts at your store during the holidays this year, but I also found myself adding a few things to my own wish list. It’s nice to find a place where I can wean myself from plastics. I enjoy shopping at the ReUp all year round.

this place is a gem! everything I buy here becomes my favorite: hand soap, floss, deodorant, dish soap, peanut butter, maple syrup, and on and on. best-feeling shopping experience, great staff, good music - and no waste!

Love this shop! My favorite item, the cream deodorant! Works as well as the antiperspirant I used to use. I have never had a natural deodorant work so well and keep me fresh for more than 7hrs. I have recently been struggling with the effectiveness of eco friendly products and I wanted to try ReUp in order to help reduce waste. Let me tell you, the all purpose cleaner works so well! I even use it to clean my stovetop nightly and it does fantastic! I also just started using the laundry detergent, although it's pricier I only use one ounce of product in my laundry and it still comes out smelling fresh. I used the restorative shampoo and conditioner last week and my hair smelled fresh for the entire day! Plus it left my hair felling softer than before I washed it. Our first transfer was the dishsoap which also works better than dawn imo, I do find myself accidentally using more because it is thinner and we prefer using a dispensing soap sponge so we get a little more out but I feel it is able to be stretched farther than dawn.
We are looking forward to moving what we can to items from this store and I am so happy I get to live close by to access it!

Re-Up is the store we all need to live sustainably. It’s easy to come in and weigh my containers and then fill them up. There are also useful cleaning products. The staff is friendly and open to suggestions. I’m glad Re-Up is nearby and I hope they grow or are copied around the area and country.

Love at first shop! I've been going to rainbow in SF for years, and figured i'll check out this zero waste store when I was in the east bay. They're like a 10th the size of rainbow but have some great stuff. I was delighted to find blueland products here (they're the first pilot shop for them) buyable loose. Toilet tabs, dishwasher tabs, compostable sonicare brush heads from ME mother earth as well!

I was skeptical of toothpaste tabs they carried, which in the past I've found to be ineffective, but the purple mint ones they had smelled very fresh so I snagged a few, and they turned out to be refreshing and did the job well!

Kombucha and iced coffee on tap too, crossing my fingers for them to open up shop in SF at some point!

Love our new soap and dish soap dispensers everything smells amazing and looks so much better than plastics