Meet Rise Mrkt, Philly’s New Digital Zero-Waste Store
Founder Jordyn Gatti spoke with Green Philly about his aspirations for Rise Mrkt, a fledgling business that ships dry pantry goods in compostable packaging to your door.
Rise Mrkt, an online grocery store that delivers organic dry pantry goods to your home, launched four weeks ago with a modest intention—to reduce plastic waste starting in the kitchen.
However, Gatti’s long-term plans are anything but modest.
Amidst the demands associated with a recent business launch, the enthusiastic founder is already envisioning how the sustainable company can endear locals to its mission and incite positive change in the Philadelphia community.
Gatti doesn’t let his status as a newcomer hold him back from ambitious thinking – in fact, he’s grateful to have avoided prior indoctrination by the unquestioned conventions of the food industry.
“When you come into a new industry you don’t know anything about; you have a completely blank slate. You have a completely open mind,” he explained.
“And I think unfortunately a lot of the problems that we find ourselves in, whether it be non-sustainable practices or any legacy system – it is because the processes and beliefs of the ways things are done just get set into stone,” Gatti shared. “I had a beautiful ignorance that allowed me to look at things with a more objective scope.”
Gatti’s ability to view systems from a broader perspective is what led him to realize that manufacturers have to take responsibility for the waste they’re producing for our local and global environments to remain habitable.
He warns that large companies often craft aggressive marketing schemes that paint consumers as the sole perpetrators of plastic waste and environmental degradation. This insidious strategy doesn’t lead to any comprehensive solutions.
“If you create the thought that people should be in charge of end-cycle packaging and not the brand, you solve the problem indefinitely,” he asserted.
Now that Rise Mrkt’s operations are beginning to enter full swing, Gatti can serve as a shining example of optimal sustainable practices and spread awareness of the responsibility manufacturers should hold themselves to throughout Philadelphia.
Gatti was based in New York City for the last 10 years, but Philly’s simultaneously friendly and gritty atmosphere grew alluring once he reached a key stage in his career. Recently, he moved back to the city he claimed as his own while growing up in Wilmington, Delaware.
“There’s this inviting, loving toughness the city has that is attractive to me… And I think that Rise Mrkt is going to need that. We’re tackling issues, we’re tackling problems with compassion,” he said.
Now that Gatti has settled in, he’s focused on giving back to the environment he finds so welcoming—starting by making sustainable, plastic-free options available to those on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
This has proven to be a difficult feat in our current moment, as Gatti is unable to be on the ground where participants must physically insert their cards into a reader to make payments.
Nonetheless, he is eager to meet people where they are as soon as possible.
“I would like to do a mobile grocery truck as soon as humanly possible to offer a handful of really basic items. And we can capture not only SNAP benefits, but also just cash for those who are not officially in the banking system,” Gatti said.
He also aspires to work with local farms and gardens to bridge gaps in availability and provide numerous sustainable options in a single convenient location.
“Something I’d like to do is work with community farms and gardens, because we don’t do fresh produce and they probably don’t do dry pantry goods. There’s opportunity there, because the most sustainable way to buy produce is locally,” he noted.
Gatti also emphasized the importance of buying locally whenever you can, as the only way we’ll see sustainability shifts all the way to the corporate level is if we put our money where our mouth is.
“People should shop small, shop local, stop shopping on Amazon, because these brands are never going to [eliminate end-cycle plastic waste] because there’s no incentive… Small companies and consumers need to work together to show that these solutions are viable, and that they’re wanted. People do care about it.”
Gatti wants potential customers to feel certain that he, in turn, cares about fulfilling his end of the manufacturing bargain.
“Even though we’re young, even though we’re scrappy, even though we’re small, we take what we do very seriously and take a lot of pride in it. We’re here to stay, we’re here to grow, and we look forward to doing it in Philadelphia.”
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