New midtown shop hopes to inspire little changes that make Sacramento cleaner, healthier

It’s no secret: Americans love the convenience of plastics. Plastic is so much a part of our lives that most of us use it everyday — but what happens after that 10-minute use of a plastic fork? A moment on the lips, thousands of lifetimes on the dump pile.

Even if you send it off in your recycling bin, there’s a good chance it doesn’t get recycled. Nudge Eco Store, a Sacramento business owned by Nick and Alisha Lee, asks everyone to think about small changes to make our daily lives more sustainable. Their new midtown location will make it easier for them to help people ask those little questions.

Nick and Alisha started Nudge in 2018 as a small way to help friends and family make sustainable changes. They mostly worked out of their home and at school fairs. As the business grew, they sold their goods as a pop-up shop in other stores. The Lees are Montana transplants, and they were surprised by the volume of trash in the Sacramento area. Between that and wanting to keep as many toxins out of their family’s life as possible, Nudge was born. In the first week of May, they opened their first brick-and-mortar location on Folsom Boulevard, and they are excited about the possibilities.

The Lees have curated sustainable products from vendors and manufacturers they trust. They focus first on local options and local makers whenever possible. When they need to reach out of the region for products, they try to keep their carbon footprint as low as possible. They look for high-quality products and source them from vendors that have values aligning with their own.

“It’s a mindset change of sustainability over convenience,” Alisha said. “Small changes have a big impact.”

Aside from wanting to help others find small changes to make, Alisha said part of their focus is providing a space for community. They believe a lot of people want to come to a store and see the products they’re buying. Consumers want to talk to a real person about their choices. These are new products to most; people have questions that can’t be answered by the internet.

“Amazon is killing community space,” Alisha said.

At Nudge, the goal is to help people find products that work in their day-to-day lives. If one laundry soap isn’t a good switch for you, they want to help you find another. You can learn how to use their products and how to fit them into your home. The Lees have experimented with online videos as another way to reach and help people.

The whole business came to be after the Lees searched for a small change for their own family: biodegradable bandages. They found a product online that they liked, but they had to be ordered in a bulk quantity.

“It was an ‘aha’ moment,” Alisha said.

A shared economy, where one shipment is made and then locally distributed would be better than 50 families making 50 small orders that have to be boxed and shipped to the same area.

“People are willing to spend a little more to make an impact,” Alisha said. “People want to do the best for the planet.”

They are hoping to make an even bigger impact with their new storefront, wanting to inspire and empower people to make better choices for their families and the planet.

“We get a lot of return customers that say, ‘Thank you for doing this,’” Alisha said. To Lee, it’s about awareness. And once you are aware of the impact of your choices, what will you do with that awareness? “It’s just taking one tiny step at a time,” she said.

One of the Lees’ favorite mottos is from zero-waste chef Anne Marie Bonneau: “We don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly.” That’s why the focus at Nudge is on helping everyone find small ways to make changes.

But where to start? Alisha suggests starting with the bathroom or kitchen. It can be as simple as your toothbrush. Over a lifetime, people will go through hundreds of toothbrushes. What if instead of using plastic toothbrushes, you chose a sustainable toothbrush made of bamboo? Plastic forks are used for only minutes and then thrown away. What if you kept a reusable silverware kit in your office or car?

Sometimes we use plastics not just for their convenience, but because it’s cheap. You can buy disposable razors for very little money. They need constant replacement, and that adds up over time — both in the cost and in the waste. It might be more expensive at one time, but you could buy a high quality razor instead. Nudge carries a couple of razor options where you replace only the blade. In selecting products to carry, they look for quality, function and even the aesthetic.

“You can buy a quality product, and just buy it once,” Alisha said.

Nudge Eco Store customers can expect painstakingly-chosen products to help them make more sustainable choices, but the real advantage of visiting their store will be the expertise they can share. After all, you can’t find that on Amazon.

Find Nudge

Where: 1126 18th St., Sacramento

Website: nudgeecostore.com.

This story was originally published May 2, 2021 at 5:00 AM.