The Tare Shop was founded by me, Kate! I moved to Halifax from Toronto in 2011 to study at Dalhousie and fell in love with Nova Scotia and the ocean – I had always loved the outdoors, but living here really deepened my love for the ocean and nature.

After graduating in 2016, I was really overwhelmed with the state of the world. It felt like I had spent 5 years studying the ways that we are harming the world – it did not inspire hope in me!

I started a website (that is no longer running) that's mission was to share environmental success stories to inspire action – when I read about incredible people doing great things, I get inspired.

Intro into the Zero Waste Movement

That's how I heard about the 'Zero Waste' movement and started making steps in my own life to reduce my plastic consumption. It was SO hard to do at the time in Halifax though – there was nowhere that made it accessible and affordable. I taught sailing in the summers and spent my off-season running around to different stores to get different things without plastic packaging.

I had the idea for The Tare Shop, as I knew that if I was trying to live a lower waste lifestyle and wanted a store like The Tare Shop, there must be other folks who would want to start shopping this way as well!

I spent a year or so writing the business plan, then putting it away thinking to myself "who do I think I am to start a business". I didn't go to business school and really doubted myself. After talking to other entrepreneurs, I realized that a pre-requisite to opening a business isn't going to business school. So I flipped that from "why me" to "why not me"!

Big Leap of Faith

I was home visiting my family in Toronto in early January of 2018 and I was lying in my bed with my mom and sister and we were brainstorming business name ideas – I can't remember who but someone suggested Tare. I immediately loved it, and. we eventually got to 'The Tare Shop'.

I made the scary leap in January of 2018 to announce that The Tare Shop would be opening in the Fall of 2018 and was immediately overwhelmed by the excitement and support from the community!

After a really intense summer of working full-time running the sailing school and working to get the shop running by fall, we opened our doors on October 3.

And here we are coming up on 4 years, over 2 of them being in a pandemic! We've now grown to have two locations, employ 12 people, and have big plans and dreams!

Keep an eye out for more stories from us and all the fun things we have planned for this month!