End of year newsletter (2023)

Dear all,

As promised, here’s another newsletter from us at the end of this year, in which we cover a bit more topics. It’s been a long time since the last proper newsletter, so there’s a lot to tell!

First things first

With every newly opened door, Christmas is approaching and with it the question: “What’s for Christmas dinner?”. We can of course help you with this question ;-)
For those of you who don’t want to leave anything to chance, we recommend that you plan ahead and let us know your wishes in good time.

So that we can fulfill your orders, we ask you to let us know by at the latest Thursday, 21.12. 10 am! Either come by, call us or write an e-mail to hallo@bioase.berlin. This is not a must, but it makes our order planning a lot easier and ensures that you get the quantities you want! (If you email us, please also call the store to let us know that a Christmas order list has arrived).

An order is important for the following products:

• Bread (baguette, substitute ciabatta from Beumer & Lutum or the delicious Pinsa from the self-service refrigeration - we think it’s a much better alternative to a frozen baguette)
• certain cheeses in larger quantities, especially raclette cheese (please specify whether in slices or in one piece, vegan or vegetarian)
• Products from the freezer (fish, prawns, baked goods etc…)
• potato dumpling dough
• certain fruit & vegetables, in particular lamb’s lettuce, red cabbage, mushrooms, artichokes, etc.
• unpackaged nuts (chestnuts, peanuts & hazelnuts)
• fresh herbs for wild game or other dishes (e.g. thyme, rosemary & bay leaf)
• certain spices, oils
• Christmas cookies (Stollen, various other sweet treats)
• certain drinks: Crémant, Riesling sparkling wine, Secco, non-alcoholic sparkling wine, mulled wine, punch or children’s punch

We look forward to providing you with all the ingredients for your Christmas menu!

News from the team

This is a little embarrassing as it’s really very late, but we’d like to take this opportunity to officially say goodbye to Klara, who has successfully completed her degree and is now going her own way: a huge thank you from the bottom of our hearts for everything! And in the meantime Marco and Elke (another one! ;-) ) have joined us. A warm welcome to both of them!

New products

We always have new products for you. We would like to highlight some of them in particular:

• various unpretentious white and sparkling wines directly from the small Winery Häußling from southern Germany, which even come in deposit bottles. Many thanks at this point to our dear and loyal member for the recommendation! When returning the bottles, you are welcome to hand in the corks too - the winery says thank you!

• Two of our collectivistas offer products from their own production:
  — From Ashley there are lots of healthy probiotics & prophylaxis: the much desired Fire Cider is finally back, Kombucha & water kefir are available in different flavors and the garlic fermented in regional honey has recently been freshly bottled. All excellent products to strengthen the immune system!
  — Rebecca offers her individually designed Hoppus pouches in different sizes. Each one is unique! They are also great to fill with different little things - be it a small bar of soap, a lip balm, a scented oil/candle or a small piece of chocolate - in case some of you are still looking for gifts :-)

• Products, 100% of the proceeds of which will be donated to these great associations and their projects: — From Flamingo e.V. there are traditional scarves made by Kurdish women, home-grown tea from Neukölln and a home-made nourishing balm and soap. They support refugee women* and children in Neukölln and maintain direct relations with the women’s village of Jinwar in Rojava/Northern Syria to support them in their struggle for autonomous self-administration. — The Prinzessinengärten have a self-illustrated wall calendar for

2024. The Prinzessinnengärten are a collectively run community garden in the New St. Jacobi Cemetery in Neukölln. The garden is open to everyone and its main aim is to provide sustainable, resource-conserving and nature-oriented educational and participatory opportunities.

• not quite new anymore, but still worth a mention: We are finally pleased to have a wide selection of the high-quality and caring cosmetic products of the Berlin cosmetics company i+m with a particularly high ethical and fair sense in our range.

• Kids’ surprises: Practice makes perfect! That’s why we have things for the little ones that support their motor skills. They can also playfully imitate the everyday life of grown-ups. Whether it’s sweeping or shopping - you’ll find everything you need here.

• In addition to the Stadtbären honey from Café Botanico in Neukölln and the Berliner Blüte, we now have a third Neukölln honey variety, the Sonnengold honey from Ina! Her honeycomb honey is a very special delicacy, for which she has built a wooden frame in which her bees produce the honeycomb directly. Honeycomb honey combines everything that is good - honey, propolis, flower nectar and pollen!

If something is missing on the shelves…

… please let us know that it has been missing (for a while)! We have quite a lot of products, and even if we know who likes to buy what from some people, we don’t know it for everyone ;-) We don’t find inquiries annoying, on the contrary; it certainly helps us to prioritize the reordering of certain products. It also lets us know which products are particularly important to you! More often there are also discontinuations, either on the part of our supplier or the manufacturer. In these cases, we will of course make every effort to find replacement products!

And now to the question: How are we doing?

So that the answer to this question doesn’t turn into a novel, let’s try to put the answer in a “cheerful to cloudy”: It’s cheerful because we continue to do what we enjoy and what is important to us; because we have people at our side who support and motivate us and with whom we grow together. It’s cloudy because it’s still damn hard to operate in the midst of crisis, loss of real wages, competition and capitalist constraints.
*
But despite all the challenges, we made it to our one year!!! It was a year full of lessons, successes, frustrations, pride and insights.
We haven’t gotten around to celebrating our anniversary properly yet, but we will definitely do so - sooner or later!!! ;-)
* Many people have already commented positively on our redesign of the bistro. We want the bistro area to be even cozier and more suitable for a café. Two major construction sites here are the lighting system and the counter area. In the meantime, we are doing what we can on a small scale - here we are proceeding step by step. *
Internally, we are still working on improving our processes, dismantling knowledge hierarchies and testing different structures in order to work and communicate even more clearly with one another. Of course, working without a boss has the crux of finding the right balance between strict guidelines and spontaneity, between theory and collective practice - and maintaining this balance.
*
On the digital side, we are currently tidying up our inventory management system and tackling the issue of automated ordering. This won’t be anything exciting or earth-shattering for you, but it will mean a huge reduction in our daily workload. You can look forward to it with us when the time comes, yay! :-) *
Apart from that, the last six months have been particularly challenging for us due to the summer break and simultaneous staff shortages caused by illness and other personal circumstances. This has taken a lot of energy, both physically and mentally. We still have lots of ideas - we are still a long way from where we want to be! What does the future of Bioase look like? This question raises very individual thoughts and feelings for each of us. However, the final answer can only be a collective answer. This brings us to the next topic; because you, our dear customers and members, are just as important in this collective process as we are!

How are things with you?

How are you doing? How much time do you find between sun, snow & rain, between everyday life and ups & downs, between housekeeping & bookkeeping for cooking, eating and being inspired? Of course, your world doesn’t revolve around the Bioase alone. So we are very, very happy and grateful that for many of you, going to Bioase is part of your everyday life! THANK YOU TO ALL who take detours, who plan their menus in advance, who practice sacrifice elsewhere in order to shop from us, to all those who consciously choose us! Without you, of course, this year would not have been possible!

In view of the continuing challenging situation, we also need to say: We urgently need more customers! If there really is to be a medium and long-term perspective for Bioase, with opportunities for the implementation of larger projects and significantly better pay for all of us, we need an average of 30 more customers a day. This figure is based on the analysis of our monthly controlling. That’s not a small number, but it’s not impossible either!

So we ask you: Would you like to come (even) more often? What can we do from our side to achieve this? Do you have any feedback for us on what you miss in the store, what we can do differently? What do you like, what motivates you to come?

Advertising & further measures

We are very happy about your active support, whatever is possible for you!

• when it fits in well with table talk: Talk (again) to your friends and acquaintances about us and the store (and about small, independent structures in general), and especially ask those people who don’t/rarely/struggle to come what would motivate them! We still need you, and we need them, no matter how small or large the purchase! We are looking forward to the reactions ;-)
• giving vouchers or memberships is an easy idea to support us, and hopefully they will stay :-)
• leave a rating and/or thumbs up for us on Google, Insta and Co. These are not our preferred spaces, but these are different times and a lot of things are now taking place in the virtual world, especially for the younger generation
• we still have a lot of flyers left! Take a bunch with you and hand them out wherever you go and where you think it would be appropriate, of course
• we also offer deliveries. Ask at your office, café or daycare center if they would be interested in a weekly fresh food basket, for example
• We are an acceptance point for the so-called Guudcard. Many employers offer a tax-free benefit in kind, i.e. a voucher for your purchases. You can redeem this voucher at various places - including at our store!
• If you have any other great ideas, please let us know! :-)

Miscellaneous

We still proclaim to reuse packaging material such as bags, cheese paper etc. as often as possible. The best thing would be if you didn’t even need our packaging material because you bring your own cloth bags, jars or tins - not always easy to remember, but perhaps a good New Year’s resolution ;-)

We and all other customers will also be happy if you bring back empty and clean egg cartons as well as clean jute bags, carrier bags and the like. Experience has shown that we all have far too many of these bags at home - the most sustainable thing to do is to use up what we have!

Finally…

… As always, the only thing left to say is: Thank you thank you thank you! Many of you will probably already be on the train, others may still be working from home, and some others may unfortunately not get time off over the holidays… no matter how you spend the coming days and weeks, whether you celebrate or not, whether you like to socialize or prefer to keep to yourself - we wish you all the best and love, lots of strength & appreciation for the present, and lots of hope & confidence for what is yet to come. We wish the same for ourselves :-)

On that note, see you later at Bioase and here’s to another year together! Your collective Bioase