Dizzie (formerly Good Club) zero waste grocery delivery

Over the past 3 years or so, I have noticed the emergence of a particular type of service that I have become very intrigued by and super excited about. Zero waste grocery deliveries. One thing that would always grind my gears, is noticing the sheer amount of single use plastic in our groceries. It’s unavoidable, right? Groceries are of course, necessary. But I couldn’t let go of this nagging frustration that the big players in the supermarket arena just weren’t doing enough to address the volume of single use plastic that flows through their supply chains, into our homes, and with the best of intentions and where possible, into our recycling waste. Yet knowing how very little of our recycling waste was actually recycled in practice, this wasn’t a scenario for which I could just accept the status quo. Hence my excitement at the prospect of zero waste grocery deliveries.

So, what are zero waste grocery deliveries? They are similar in nature to the more common zero waste high street shops you may have heard of, where you take along your tubs and containers and fill up on dry goods and some liquid products. I had always liked the idea of shopping at a zero waste shop, but the less convenient nature always put me off, speaking as an ardent grocery delivery fan. In short, zero waste grocery delivery services allow consumers to order goods that come supplied in returnable plastic pots that are hygienically cleaned once returned so that they can be put back into circulation for the next customer. The consumer then decants the contents into their own containers, and then the returnable plastic pots are shipped back to the supplier. Genius right?! This sounded right up my street!

One such company providing this style service was Dizzie. Dizzie are a zero waste online shopping platform who aim to make zero waste shopping not only easy, but also as sustainable and planet friendly as possible. They have a range of 500+ products that are single use plastic free and source products from producers with similar aims and values, meaning you can feel good purchasing from their wide range, spanning dry goods, treats, drinks, household and personal items. All of this, and the service has been designed with carbon neutral delivery in mind, by having partnered with DPD, who are aiming to become the UK’s premier carbon neutral courier. You can take a read about their goals and initiatives here. So not only are DPD one of the most reliable couriers in the UK… but they are taking responsibility for cleaning up their operations too.

Now before I jump into my review of Dizzie, one quick point I’d like to mention for transparency purposes. Dizzie ran a crowd funding campaign on CrowdCube starting in October 2021, and I made a small investment in Dizzie through this crowdfunding campaign. This was before I became a Dizzie customer.

As part of the crowdfunding campaign pledge, I was rewarded with a voucher code for what Dizzie calls their Zero Waste investor swag pack, which includes a 750ml glass storage jar, a Good Club cotton tote bag, some storage jar labels and chalk pens and some of their popular chocolate ballers plus another voucher code for £20 off and free delivery on ten orders. To date I have only used my £20 off and free delivery voucher once and am yet to claim my Zero Waste investor pack, so I feel these rewards in no way influence my review of the service provided by Dizzie.

But now that’s out of the way, let’s dive right in!

First impressions…

I won’t lie, I slept on signing up to Dizzie for quite some time. I spent months perusing their website and social media, checking out the new products they were adding to their zero waste line and just generally observing the vibe of the company. One thing I was impressed with was the speed at which they were moving to add new zero waste products to their range.

One of the main barriers to signing up for me personally was actually nothing to do with Dizzie and their service at all. It was the process of figuring out which containers I would use to store all my zero waste groceries. I knew I wanted airtight containers and in a minimalist style, but figuring out the volumes of the containers and what corresponding volume of product they could hold was nothing short of a nightmare for me. Dizzie actually goes some way to assist in figuring this out, as they state the volume jar required on each of their zero waste product pages. However, this had been something I had been researching for months even before I discovered Dizzie, hence why it took me so long to get comfortable that I had the right containers to get going with. For anyone curious about the containers I opted for, here are the links from Amazon;

• Chefs Path mixed container set
• Chefs Path 4x 3.2ltr
• Chefs Path 6x 1.5ltr

Dizzie operate what they call a “delivery pass” system, which dictates how much your zero waste delivery cost will be and how many orders you can make per month. There are three options to choose from which are all subject to a £20 minimum order spend and include free collections of your empty pots;

• Basic
  • No monthly subscription cost
  • Each delivery will cost £5.99
  • Great for households that need to make only occasional orders
• Plus
  • Monthly subscription cost of £3.99
  • Provides x1 delivery per month
  • All additional deliveries within the same month are charged at £5.99 each
  • Good for households that need to top up products monthly
• Super
  • Monthly subscription cost of £7.99
  • Unlimited deliveries with no additional cost

I opted for the Plus delivery pass safe in the knowledge that I could pause or cancel the subscription at any time.

With my account now setup and my subscription level decided, I embarked on cramming my online shopping basket with all the items I needed and that I felt I had a suitable storage container for.

Once I checked out, I began my impatient wait for my delivery… I really didn’t know what to expect and my curiosity was at fever pitch.

When my products arrived, which they did on time, thanks to DPDs excellent level of service, they did so in a large flip top crate that was secured with cable ties. The cable ties themselves are reusable, they are not to be cut to open the box. You simply press the little tab on the cable tie and undo them, saving them for securing the boxes return to Dizzie. Another small piece of avoided single use plastic! I am loving the attention to detail. The box was very sturdy there was no evidence that the box had been tampered with or damaged in any way. Now to unpack…

I can honestly say I felt like a little kid at Christmas unpacking my goodies. And yes, we can mutually agree that I probably need to get out more, and that’s ok.

The products all came in lightweight, white reusable pots with screw lids, and a Dizzie label denoting the contents. The only products that came packaged differently were the zero waste handsoap and washing up liquid which are made by a clever company called Fill. They provide household and personal care products in a closed-loop zero waste solution. They are a Dizzie supplier so I was excited to try out their products! I won’t be including a review of their products in this blog, but I’ll make sure to follow up on a dedicated post.

Decanting the products was a super easy process, and before I knew it, all my new goodies were in their new homes and I had packed the returnable pots back into the Dizzie flip top crate, securing the lid with the cable ties I had removed earlier. A returns label was handily already attached to the side of the crate, all I had to do was peel off the protective outer label and pop the crate outside ready to be collected within the next three days. So easy!

The quality of the products is also of a very high standard. I can’t say that of any of the products I have ordered have been a dud. For any of you overnight oats fans out there, the Jumbo Oats in particular have been a game changer! I can also highly recommend the pretzels and pistachios if you are an avid snacker.

Price-wise, I have found many of the staples to be of a comparable price to your usual supermarkets (maybe not the popular discounters), it is only the snacks and more exotic or unusual items that I have found to be pricey. However, for the sake of a more sustainable shopping experience, I am happy to pay a little more for the couple of luxury items (here’s looking at you pistachios!) that I allow myself to treat myself to.

Finals thoughts…

At the time of writing this review, I have made two orders with Dizzie, and shortly about to make my third. And honestly, I am very happy with the service. It combines all the aspects of convenience I was after with a wide variety of high quality products and a more planet friendly approach to grocery shopping.

The delivery and collection aspect is so easy and convenient, and both of my empty crates have been collected within two days of delivery by Hermes, so you aren’t left looking after a cumbersome crate for days on end. I always pop my crate outside straight after unpacking, and the courier usually just leaves a collection note without any further interruptions. A really nice touch is that after both of my orders, Dizzie have sent me a £10 off voucher for my next order, which is a fantastic way to earn and ensure customer loyalty.

One aspect that I think could be improved is the process for making changes to your order prior to delivery. Most of us that use supermarket online delivery apps are used to logging in and amending our baskets up until the day before the delivery is scheduled. And while Dizzie does offer the ability to adjust your order, it’s a little ”clunky” to say the least. You don’t necessarily log in to your existing order post checkout to make changes, but you can process another order that adds your newly added items to your upcoming delivery. Removing items requires reaching out to customer support and asking them to remove items for you. This is probably the least convenient aspect of ordering with Dizzie, but I am hopeful that this process improves as the business matures and refines it’s website experience.

I have been grateful to have had minimal issues with my Dizzie delivery, the first being a cracked pot in my first order. The contents were still intact and there was no spillage in the crate, but I was more concerned that the pot itself wouldn’t be picked out and removed from circulation. I contacted Dizzie’s support and alerted them to the issue, and using my order number they were able to intercept the crate and remove the damaged pot.

The only other issue I had was a delivery I had scheduled for a Monday arrived unexpectedly on a Saturday. When I contacted Dizzie they mentioned that this can sometimes happen with deliveries scheduled for a Monday if DPD have availability to deliver early. Apparently this is pointed out on the Dizzie website, which is totally my bad for missing it! But the support agent did they would feed this back to the website user experience team to make it more prominent.

A particularly cool aspect of the Dizzie website is the voting page. Here, Dizzie allows members to vote for the next products they’d like to see introduced as part of their zero waste range. Members can either submit a completely new product idea, or ”upvote” ideas that other members have submitted for consideration. The really awesome part, is that as I have been perusing the website both in my earlier research of Dizzie, and since I have begun ordering, it’s plain to see that Dizzie has listened to it’s members, and introduced some of the top rated products on it’s ”new products” page. This really creates a sense of community and puts some of the power in members hands. This feel’s particularly powerful as a consumer, when the issue around single use plastic can feel so huge, that your efforts can feel inconsequential. I’d like to shout out to Dizzie for empowering your members. This simple gesture holds so much weight and is very much appreciated.

All in all, I absolutely love this new way to purchase some of my every day groceries in a much more planet friendly way, and I anticipate remaining a Dizzie customer for some time. To me, this feels like the future of grocery deliveries and I look forward to seeing how companies like Dizzie continue to innovate and evolve, challenging the status quo of the supermarket giants, who quite frankly aren’t even managing the bare minimum in terms of sustainable grocery deliveries. In fact, I enjoyed reminiscing on my experience with Dizzie so much that I have started my third order while writing this post. And this time, I decided to call in my Zero Waste investor swag pack. Who can resist a reusable cotton tote after all…

If you have signed up, or plan to sign up to Dizzie, comment below. I’d love to hear about your experience!