shop without packaging

You can find so many food items and other products loose or in bulk on Paros that you don’t need to be shy about bringing you own containers when you go shopping. It might feel strange at first, but shops and shopkeepers are getting more used to the idea that many of their customers no longer want unnecessary and wasteful packaging.

The Map

Here's a map so you can find all the best shops, but please let me know if you have updates on what’s available and where.

All of the butchers and supermarkets on the island sell at least some loose or bulk  items, so they aren’t included on the map. You can also use your own bag for bread and biscuits at any bakery and bring your own containers for cakes or ice-cream if they sell them.

At the butchers or any shop where they sell cheese or meat, they will let you use your own jars.

Every supermarket has a section where they sell cheese, olives, capers, and other products that you can buy free of packaging.

Most pet shops sell dry food for cats and dogs in bulk. For wet food, butchers can also give you left-overs.

The Shops

Naoussa

Το Μελίσσι delicatessen 

• March to October 9am to 9pm

• On the ring road of Naoussa

• Local products, some grown on their own farm. Ask for anything you want in your own packages or containers. 

• Food: Fruits and vegetables (according to the season); Parian mangoes in August; tea, olives, dried figs, dry Parian grapes, fresh eggs, local pasta "mimigeli" (ask to buy it loose), flax seed, souma, sugar, salt, wine, and honey, which they package in glass bottles (so ask for a refill after your first purchase).

• Cosmetics and cleaning products: Creams made with ingredients grown on their own farm (ask for refills); loofahs (natural sponges); green soap called "prasino sapouni,"  which is made with olive oil and is perfect for the body or to wash clothes.

• Reusables: Shopping bags and bamboo straws.

Arsenis delicatessen

• Open all year. 

• On the river road

• Food: Local produce and fruit and vegetables, some grown on their own farm and described as organic (though without an organic label). Ask what is from Paros or elsewhere in Greece. Also bananas and avocados from Crete, when in season; dry legumes, olives, feta, cheese, fresh local eggs, and organic olive oil in glass bottles.

Ilias Kritikos 

• Open all year

• In front of the gas station at the entrance of Naoussa when you come from Paroikia.

• Food: Lots of local produce, fruit and vegetables, dry legumes and capers, etc. Ask what is from Paros or the rest of Greece, and for things that are not necessarily on display in the shop, because they often have other items in the back.

Καφεκοπτείο Harma Νάουσας Πάρου 

• Open all year. 

• In front of AB supermarket

• Food: A wide selection of dried fruits and nuts and freshly ground coffee.

• Resusables: Takeaway cups.

Isterni

Kostas Sifneos (Το Γεωπονικών)

• Open all year

• On the road that goes from Naoussa to the south of the island.

• Pet food: A great place to buy pet food in bulk.

Paroikia

Paros Fresh (“The Cretan shop”)

• Open all year.

• On the street up from Pepe Souvlaki and if you come from the main road, if you pass the turn to the periferiako, just after on the right there is a right turn into a small street.

• Food: Local produce, much of it from Paros or elsewhere in Greece (ask if you want to be sure), a big selection of fruit and vegetables, seeds, bananas and avocado from Crete (when they’re in season), nuts and dry fruits, dry legumes, cereals, olives, capers, feta, cheese, fresh local eggs, and yogurt in summer.

Με τη σέσουλα (Me ti sesoula)

• Open all year. Summer: 9 a.m. to 9.30 p.m. Winter: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

• Down from the Cretan shop (see above)

• Food: Local produce, spices, nuts and dried fruit, dry legumes, seeds, olive oil, local souma, cereals such as corn flakes, oats, granola, buckwheat, millet, tea and freshly ground coffee, raw cacao, salt, and medicinal herbs.

• Cleaning and personal care: Natural soaps, reusable cotton make-up removers, natural creams, bicarbonate, white clay.

• Resusables: Shopping bags and cotton make-up removers.

Βιοshop βιολογικό παντοπωλείο 

• Open all year. 

• On the main road just after Paroikia on the way to Naoussa, on the left side.

• Food: Fruit and vegetables bananas and avocados from Crete and mangoes from Paros, (when in season), nuts and dried fruits and dry legumes, though all the food items labelled as organic are packaged in plastic.

Sklavenitis Supermarket 

• Open all year.

• On the main road that goes to Naoussa from Paroikia, just in front of Aliprantis bakery there is a turn to the right.

• Toilet paper wrapped in paper, and loose items at the counter, including cheese, olives, capers, etc.

Froutemporiki

• Next to the second-hand shop

• Food: Some local produce, fruit and vegetables. Ask what is from Paros or the rest of Greece.

BIOTEV

• Open until 2 p.m. 

• Contact: 22840 699275 / 693043125

• On the old road that goes to Naoussa, just after the school

• Cleaning products, laundry liquid, shampoo and soap.

• Biotev is an extraordinary cooperative that produces no waste:  all the by-products from the manufacture of olive oil are reused to make various kinds of cleaning products, shampoo and dishwashing and laundry liquid. They also make solid soaps with Calendula from their garden, sell their own compost and accept gardening waste.

Paros by Patricia

• Shampoo: Greek solid shampoo. Packaged in paper.

Andonis pet shop

• Open all year.

• Near the gas station before entering Paroikia.

• Another shop with a really wide choice of dog and cat food 

Parasporos

Mariori's shop 

• Open all year. Summer: 8 a.m. to 5 or 6 p.m. Winter: 8 a.m. to 3 or 4 p.m.

• On the road to Aliki, after Magaya. On the side of the road, on the right when you come from Paroikia.

• Food: Though not labelled as such, the produce they sell and grow is apparently free of chemicals. You will find seasonal fruit and vegetables from their own farm, and they also have marmalades and olive oil, though you should take your own containers since some of their products come in plastic.

Kamari

KAMARANTHO active organic farm

• Open all year. Summer: mornings from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

• In the village of Kamari follow signs. 

• Well worth a visit for their organic labeled food Depending on the season, they also have figs, gooseberries, pomegranates, bananas, jams and olive oil in glass containers.

Marpissa

AB Shop & Go 

• Food: Unpackaged almonds, peanuts, rice, beans, lentils, chickpeas and fava. You can also use your own containers when you buy olives and cheese.

Drios

Anoussakis Market

• On the main road when you drive through Drios

• Food: Local products, including spices in glass jars and cheese and olives to take away in your own containers. 

• Reusables: Bags, bottles, and stainless steel straws.