Zero-waste Tare Market set to open second Twin Cities location

Tare Market, which calls itself "Minnesota's first zero-waste shop", is set to open a second location in the Twin Cities this spring. 

The store sells goods — food, household supplies, beauty products, and other items — that aren't in packaging or plastic in an effort to help reduce waste and fight climate change. 

Amber Haukedahl founded Tare Market and opened the first location at 2717 E. 38th St. in Minneapolis in 2019, and now she is expanding the store's footprint with a second location at 945 Broadway St. NE in Minneapolis. It will open on Earth Day, April 22. 

Tare Market is hoping to raise $25,000 via an Indiegogo fundraiser to help pay for expansion costs, like buying bulk bins, scoops, inventory and nut butter grinders. The market is also hosting an info session about transitioning your home to zero waste — the virtual event is $5 and will go toward the opening of the new store. 

"With this second location, we will not only be able to make sustainably living easier for the community we are moving to, we are going to have a space to fulfill zero waste orders for our newly launched online store, which has a national reach," the fundraiser states. "With this new space, we will be able to bring sustainable living to everyone, regardless of their location."

Tare Market used crowdfunding to help open its first store back in 2019, with the campaign raising $15,000 in four days, the Business Journal states. 

Customers who shop at Tare Market can bring in their own containers or borrow jars from the store to shop the bulk section, which includes shelf-stable foods, refillable cleaning products, health and beauty items and personal hygiene items. It also offers products in compostable or recyclable plastic-free wrapping. 

All the items in the store are made without non-recycled plastic and the store works with vendors to reduce upstream waste, the Indiegogo explains. 

Since opening in April 2019, Tare Market says it has diverted more than 40,000 plastic bags from landfills, kept more than 2,000 boxes from the recycling system by reusing them to ship online orders, and has planted 4,500 trees (one for every online order) with Seed the Change and Ecologi, the Indiegogo says. 

Those who donate to the Indiegogo will be eligible for rewards, including bundles of zero-waste products.