PHOTO: Left to right: Olivia Sousa, Shara Ertel and Shayla Bellucci greet customers with smiles at Fulfilled Goods. Photo by Genevieve Morrison
Inside a small storefront on Washington Street, customers fill paper bags with rice and reusable totes with jars of liquid soap to an accompaniment of soft indie music.
There are no shopping carts or checkout lanes, but this is their weekly grocery shopping trip.
Fulfilled Goods, the two-year-old business in Newtonville, boasts a no-judgment, sustainable shopping experience carrying everything from food to haircare to cleaning items.
Most goods are refillable, all are environmentally friendly.
Shara Ertel, the owner of the store, says its goal is not simply to cater to people who already shop sustainably, but to entice new people who have never tried this kind of shopping experience before.
“We try to encourage people to, wherever they are, to just feel comfortable coming in,” Ertel said. “It’s one of the reasons, in choosing the name, I wanted a name that wasn’t screaming ‘green’ and ‘eco’ in case someone felt like that might be off-putting.”
Some items require more of a lifestyle change than others. For instance, Ertel said reusable towels are an easier switch than toothpaste tabs, a powdered alternative to toothpaste in a tube.
“We try to have stuff that’s really just easy to make a switch to, period,” Ertel said. “Some of them do require, you know, a little bit of a behavior change or just remembering to do it, but a lot of them end up being, again, easier to use and cheaper to use than the plastic alternative.”
Ertel said she was inspired by bulk goods stores she visited in the Pacific Northwest.
“I took the opportunity to go and check out those stores, meet different people and start to learn about the kinds of products they had,” Ertel said.
Ertel worked in biotech for 20 years before taking a break in 2014 to spend more time with her children. After not working for a few years, she was at a crossroads.
“I had meant to take a summer off,” Ertel said. “I hadn’t had summer off since I was a kid, because I never saw myself as someone who would stop working. But I kind of filled the time quickly with other stuff, and then I started to think about whether I wanted to go back to biotech or not.”
She joked that she left her former job to get a break but found that being a small business owner was just as challenging.
“I like biotech because it was really intense,” Ertel said. “This is definitely harder for less financial reward.”
Still, Ertel said the long hours spent at her store bring her fulfillment.
“Even on really hard days, you have a customer come in and they’re like, ‘I just have to tell you how happy I am that you exist,’” Ertel said.
Ertel ran the business by herself for a year and a half when she first started, so she said that the help of small staff—one full-time associate and two summer interns—has made operating the store easier.
“It’s enabled me to do more,” Ertel said.
Olivia Sousa is the only other full-time employee at Fulfilled Goods. She has a degree in biology and a passion for the environment, so she said that the mission of Fulfilled Goods aligns with her own experience and goals.
“I always had an interest in this,” Sousa said. “I have worked in retail since I was 15, and I’m 23 now. I definitely have experience in the science side and also the retail side, and I’ve always wanted to open up a store like this.”
Shayla Bellucci, a rising senior at Newton South High School, is a summer intern at the store. She assists Sousa with the store’s social media.
“I’m just hoping to branch out to more kids my age, because my generation is the leaders of the future,” Bellucci said. “So really just trying to get more people to learn about this.”
Bellucci said working at Fulfilled Goods has inspired her to change her own lifestyle to be more eco-friendly.
“My mom is so annoyed,” Bellucci laughed. “I’ll go home and I’ll yell at her, ‘you can’t put that there, you have to do this.’ I’m fighting for a compost.”
Ertel said that the store’s customers range in age and demographics, but the common thread between them is a desire to help the environment.
“I think that’s been really surprising in a positive way,” Ertel said. “A lot of people are just trying to do whatever they can.”