Long Beach’s newest grocery store is vegan, organic, package-free and ‘Ethikli’ sourced

When customers leave Ethikli, Long Beach’s first package-free grocery store, their bags don’t crackle with the sound of wasteful plastic packaging: they ring with the sound of glass lightly tapping in tote bags or plastic containers thudding against one another. 

The walls and shelves of the Downtown Long Beach shop are lined with vegan, organic bulk food, ready to be shoveled or funneled into mason jars, paper bags and recycled take-out containers. 

It’s something owner Katy Impellizzeri, 31, has dreamed of for the past decade. 

“It was needed. There was nothing like this and I felt like everyone was ready for it,” Impellizzeri said, noting that the closure of organic food store Kress Market during the pandemic left a role she felt Ethikli could fill. 

“I wanted to fill that gap, and kind of check all my personal morals, and find a place that I could do 98% of my shopping,” Impellizzeri said. “It was born out of necessity, because no vegan grocery stores exist in Long Beach. There’s no package-free grocery stores.”

In February, Ethilki opened its doors⁠—and its commercial nut butter mills, fridges of pickles and cambros full of grains⁠—to the public. 

Impellizzeri became interested in environmentalism a decade ago when a “YouTube rabbit hole” opened her eyes to the impact of plastic pollution. 

A video of Lauren Singer⁠—a woman infamous for carrying her years worth of personal plastic waste in a single mason jar⁠—inspired Impellizzeri to go low waste.

“As low as I could possibly go,” she said. 

But it’s nearly impossible to go zero waste while shopping at traditional grocery stores, where items are packaged in plastic for freshness and protection from germs. 

Her endeavor to lower her personal plastic waste, she said, was “difficult” and “frustrating.”

In Long Beach, shops like BYO Long Beach allow customers to refill their own containers with self care and cleaning products. Many grocery stores have bulk sections, though these goods are usually shoveled into plastic bags, negating the opportunity for environmentalism. And bulk food sections, which involve the repetitive contact of a scooper by different customers, weren’t necessarily the preferred method during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“I’m like, there’s gotta be other people out there that want the same things that I do,” Impellizzeri said. “Because a lot of it too was just me being sick and tired of supporting these greedy corporations and not wanting to fund child labor and forced labor and that kind of stuff.”

The Bureau of International Labor Affairs maintains a list of goods and source countries which it has reason to believe are produced by child labor or forced labor in violation of international standards. As of June 23, 2021, that list comprises 156 goods from 77 countries, including items as common as tomatoes from Mexico. 

Through calls, emails, photos and research, each of her distributors is vetted to her satisfaction. Impellizzeri takes pride in the fact that everything in the store is not only vegan and organic, but ethically sourced. 

“That was the other reason why I opened this [store], I did all the work for you,” she said. “So you can come in here and shop with peace of mind […] knowing there’s no money going to these big corporations that are basically destroying the planet.”

Katy Impellizzeri, owner of the grocery store Ethikli, holds a ready-to-go jar of her popular Sunny Bear gummy candies near the picture near her store’s front door on April 29, 2022. Behind her are instructions for using reusable containers to make purchases inside her package-free, organic, vegan grocery store in Downtown Long Beach. (Richard H. Grant Signal Tribune)

Katy Impellizzeri demonstrates how to use the peanut butter processor inside of her grocery store Ethikli on April 29, 2022. The store’s name is a play on the word ethically and her initials, KLI. (Richard H. Grant Signal Tribune)

Katy Impellizzeri helps guide Tony Gomez, a first-time customer, through her grocery store Ethikli on April 29, 2022. Ethikli (a play on the word ethically) is a packaging-free, organic, vegan grocery store recently opened in Downtown Long Beach. (Richard H. Grant Signal Tribune)

Tony Gomez, a first-time customer of Ethikli, scans a tag used to track his purchase in a reusable container on April 29, 2022. Ethikli is a packaging-free, organic, vegan grocery store that recently opened in Downtown Long Beach. (Richard H. Grant Signal Tribune)

She calls herself an “eco-minimalist,” someone who practices minimalism through the lens of being environmentally conscious. 

Though she felt that Long Beach was “ready” for a package-free grocer, thanks to others who paved the way like BYO Long Beach, she believes there’s still work to be done in educating the public about sustainability.

“I think a lot of people get caught up in, ‘Oh, it’s expensive to live a low waste lifestyle.’ It’s more affordable than you think,” she said, explaining that the prices of many of her products are on par with Vons or Whole Foods organics. “It’s become more accessible.”

Ethikli is located at 352 E 4th St. and is open Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Customers are encouraged to bring their own containers, but containers are available for purchase and the shop offers free, donated containers that are sanitized. 

Correction, May 10, 3:30 p.m.: A previous version of this story stated that Ethikli opened in April. The shop had a soft opening in February and a grand opening on March 19.