A lot can happen in a week. Or a day. Or at 4pm on some idle Tuesday afternoon in April.
Sometimes it feels good to say yes. Work it out as we go. This time, thanks to Kiera keeping a close ear to the ground, we got wise to a new opportunity and threw our hat in the ring for a chance to put up a last-minute rent-free pop-up shop. And here we are.
A pop-up top-up FILL refill shop in Borough Yards. Right around the corner from Borough Market. A few minutes on foot from London Bridge station.
We didn’t get more than a few days to think it all over. To pull things together. To bring things down into town. To set up a top up pop up shop. Nor did we have any kind of cash set aside to make it happen. We did it anyway. And I am so happy that we did. And so proud of the whole FILL team. We used what we’ve got, plus a whole lot of imagination, to make something as good as we possibly could.
Posters risograph printed in record time. Bottles filled and crated. Powder packed into jars. Drums cleaned, stencilled & rolled into place. Chris, Dave & Alex came down to help put stuff up. We filled the in-house shop rota in record time; including the lab crew, my nephew and a daschund puppy. Eleonora, our Head of Creative, brilliantly masterminded every last detail. Cool as a cucumber.
We want this temporary space to be more than a regular refill retail space. We choose to use the language and tools of protest because we don’t think single use is cool. We do like Risograph posters. They are simple, don’t cost much, they’re characterful & they make an impact. Refill is the same. The repetition all up the wall is meant to reinforce the idea of refill, reuse & repeat visits to a local store.
We’d like more folks to get into refill. To make a start down Refill Road. We’d like to help them find their local independent store. Anyone who comes to see us can pick up a card with a QR code that takes them to a refill stockist map, helping them find the nearest one.
Incase you’re wondering, popping up in a shop that does top-ups doesn’t mean we’re about to open a whole load of refill shops. We are not. But, this pop up was too good to turn down. Besides, we’ve already worked with a few of the neighbours in Borough Market; Sustainable Wines, Monmouth Coffee and Mei Mei. It’s exciting to be in a place where lot of folks stop by to listen in. Together we want to work out how we can find a way to close the loop.
We’re soon gonna be making refills available from a new factory shop. For folks nearby or who are passing by and want to collect or drop drums direct from where we make everything. We’ll set up the minute we fold down the pop up.
Meanwhile, it would be cool to see you down at the pop up. Drop in, top up, hang out and FILL here from now until Sunday 17th May.
Make your way down to 23 Dirty Lane, just along from Soap Yard. Come meet the team. Try things out. Ask questions. We’ll be glad to talk you through the thrills, fills and spills. Bring a bottle.
SINGLE USE IS OVER!
