The next wave of enviro-friendly shopping 

Walk into Refill Madness at the Sonoma Marketplace Shopping Center and you will see what the future of shopping for environmentally-friendly products looks like. 

By Leslie Nicholson | Sonoma Sun

Co-owned by Jana Wang, born and raised in Sonoma, and Sloane Read, founder of the original Refill Madness Sacramento Store since 2016, the two women are passionate about zero-waste products and reducing plastic waste. Their passion is matched with a priority to make the switch to refillable bottles simple and convenient for their customers.

Wang, a graduate of Sonoma Valley High School, spent time living, working and traveling domestically and globally, now calls Sonoma home with her husband and two children. She and Reed have been friends since childhood.

“My husband and I had been discussing opening a business prior to the pandemic,” Wang explains. “The decision to change gears for our family timed out well, with retail space opening up and the pandemic starting to turn a corner. We also saw this type of business as something positive for the future of the environment.”

The store offers refills for kitchen, personal care, kitchen, hair care, bath and body and laundry products. A number of all-natural products are also made in-house at the Sacramento store, including face toner, bath salts, hand sanitizer, bath bombs, toothpaste tablets and bug repellent. One of the best-sellers are laundry sheets, which create zero-waste.

“We want to make this as simple and convenient for people as possible,” Wang says. “Customers can place their order and come back to pick up their refilled bottles. We also give customers the chance to try our products by purchasing small refill bottles.”

Refill Madness sells by the ounce, so you can buy as much or as little as you would like, Wang says. No bottle? No problem. The store has free bottles (you can also make a small donation) for customers to refill as well. 

With the exception of a few products, the refill method is a money-saver. Explains Wang, “We want to make this a one-stop-shop for people when they are out running errands. People are busy and looking for ways to save money, and we want to help our customers do both. “

Not only does the business focus on reducing plastic waste, but on how other aspects of their business impact the environment. 

“We purchase 75 percent of our products within 200 miles of our store,” says Wang. “By limiting shipping, we are helping to reduce our carbon footprint as well. Supporting other local businesses that also support the environment is also essential to our business model.” 

Read is the owner and founder of the original Refill Madness in Sacramento. “When I started my business in 2016, people were not talking about plastic waste,” she explains. “We feel that our purpose is helping people move toward more zero-waste lifestyles. Since starting our store in Sacramento five years ago, we have kept 30,000 pounds of plastic waste from being discarded. That equates to 2.8 tons of plastic not going into landfills and the ocean.”

The goal is to change the mindset of consumers and, more importantly, manufacturers who supply the stores with products in plastic “People vote with their dollars. The more demand there is for businesses like ours and environmentally friendly products and packaging, more will become available.”

Refill Madness offers stamp cards for refills and will be updating customers regularly with information about store events and new products through a newsletter. The store plans to offer special event nights and workshops once Covid restrictions are lifted.