A bio supermarket is a type of environmentally friendly supermarket that probably uses green energy and mainly sells organic foods, nutritional supplements and health foods. They offer a wide range of organic food aimed at promoting health in the community that buys from them. So how did the bio supermarkets start?
History of the Bio Supermarkets
Organic stores trace their origin in the late 18th to early 19th century. However, the future lied on a different type of supermarket called the bio supermarkets. The idea of coming up with this type of supermarket was formulated in Germany. Supermarkets chains such as Dennree in Germany utilised these ideas and decided to open the first bio supermarket called the 'Future Foundation Organic Market' way back in 2013. The main idea of the opening was to support organic and a sustainable type of agriculture. Since then many chains of bio supermarkets has been opened across Europe. These stores have the same aim of maintaining sustainability in the Agriculture sector.
What's Different?
The bio supermarkets do not consume natural gas or fuel and are considered to be 100% fossil fuel-free. A visit to most bio supermarket you will realize that they have a deli-style rather than the traditional and modern styles seen in the other supermarkets that you are used to. Also, the space between the shelves is wide enough to allow more people than in many conventional supermarkets.
Products offered
One thing that you will note is that the shelves of these supermarkets have over 5000 food and non-food product. Anything that you can find in other stores can also be found in these supermarkets. The only exception is that the products supplied are organic and ecological. When buying things like fresh meat, vegetables and cheese they will be made ready by the staff within minutes as you wait. The ingredients found on each product are labelled. The details of the allergens present are also contained on the label. You can also ask the staff to clarify more on each product. The supermarkets also serve people with diverse nutritional requirements as a result of ailments among other factors.
A Natural Store
The most fascinating thing about the store is that all the supermarkets' operations will be carried out without the use of natural gas or fossil fuel. These supermarkets have adopted sustainable ways in which they use to control internal temperatures. The propane cooling system, which is environmentally friendly, releases residue heat that is used to heat up the retail spaces. 75 % of the heat that is released in the air is recovered by the ventilators or stored within the thermal banks.
Instead of a real energy supplier, other bio supermarket uses the Interseasonal Heat Transfer (IHT) as an energy supplier that provides the green energy used within the building. It provides solar space heating and proven natural way of cooling. They use 100% green electricity and to stimulate biodiversity they use a green façade. The supermarket use LED lighting to minimize the consumption of energy. To enhance lighting in the building the supermarket use a skylight roofing. The supermarket utilizes sustainable buildings and offers fresh organic products.