Zero Waster Week – Favourite Shops – Yes Bebe * The Mum Diaries

Honestly prior to having children I wasn’t particularly environmentally conscious at all. But having children really changed my perspective on a lot of things, and I stopped living just for the present but also for the future. I worry a lot about what will be left, not just for my kids, but for all generations in the future. So, we have developed Yes Bébé overtime to try and spread the message even more. Our plans for 2020 will see that taken even further, hopefully!

How did you come up with the name?

Honestly, we had some ideas then we tried to buy a domain name and just went with the domain name we could get. Bebe is actually BB which is what Chinese people call baby, as well as the French Bébé!

How do you choose which brands and products to stock?

We scrutinise quite carefully actually. We question origins of materials (not just the certifications), the supply chain (right to their representatives in the UK), and also the benefit of the products. I think this sets us apart from some environmentally conscious retailers, as we will still consider certain products if they present an exceptional benefit. For example, we stock plastic bath toys, but we have been careful to select long-lasting quality ones, whereas people may argue plastic is bad. Well actually we have to consider how long a wooden version would realistically last, and we also need to remember there is a large carbon footprint from harvesting wood, even in sustainably managed forests. So if a plastic toy is going to last generations, whereas a wooden toy might mould, we would probably go for the plastic.

Do you have a favourite product? Why?

It changes regularly. I would say my One Green Bottles are probably the most indispensable products!

What sets your shop apart from others?

We aren’t just family run, we are a tight knit extended family now. We’re mostly mothers with similar aged children, we have no marketing experts, no warehousing experts, etc. We hired working mothers with relatively little experience and we’ve all been learning as we go! Our opening hours reflect school hours as we’re all responsible for school runs. There’s no third parties, no flashy photoshopped images, no paid social media experts, no gimmicks, no spin, just transparency!

And as I said above, the way we view the ethical process slightly deviates from others, and we’re also really highly conscious of “greenwashing”, it’s something that comes up a lot when making choices.

We try to stock lots of brands aimed at lots of different price points to offer people choice. We are really anti pushing brands on people and saying you have to have “this” brand, wherever we have the capacity to do so we prefer to offer choice.

Where would you like to see your shop in 5 years time?

Thank you so much, Charlotte for taking the time to answer my questions!