It started around July 4, 2024, when a mysterious message popped up on Facebook—“Coming soon!!!”—along with an image that said, “just Be...Market & Refillery,” followed by explanations about what a refillery is and what to expect from the “just Be...” market.

For the next few weeks, other intriguing posts followed, including: “In a world where you can Be anything...just Be kind,” pictures of a shopfront at 909 Allegheny Street in Jersey Shore (across from the Jersey Shore YMCA), progress of the interior renovations, and one of owner Lisa Enders, standing in front of her store, smiling, the word “Faith” written in the shape of a cross on her shirt. The caption promising “Coming Soon...”

Soon pictures of products began to appear. By July 30, Lisa’s post put out the question: “Are you ready to ‘Be a refiller?’”

Finally, just Be...Market & Refillery opened on Monday, August 5.

Hmmm. So what is a refillery? The term might be new, but the concept isn’t. Think growler, propane tank, or the gas can you take to the gas station to fill up. First, a glass container is weighed. The customer fills it with the desired product, then it’s weighed again, which determines the cost. The customer pays for the product, not the container, and when the container is emptied, it can be returned and refilled rather than being thrown away.

In the ensuing months, her business, products, and customer base have expanded. Lisa explains that her business and life philosophy is in three words: “just be kind.”

“In an effort to eliminate the one-use plastic containers that fill our landfills and contaminate our environment, just Be is a place that you can bring your own container, or purchase one [here], and fill it with our nontoxic, plant-based products,” she says. “Doing this is being kind to the planet, specifically being a good steward of the planet humanity has been given.”

She explained her store offers laundry products, hand soap, dish soap, shampoo, conditioner, and other cleaners that are free of extraneous chemicals and other ingredients that may be harmful. Customers can buy as much or as little as they want, so it’s easy to try new products.

A great example of her admitted “hippy philosophy” is her aversion to toothpaste tubes.

“Where do the tubes go? Into the ground? Over 400 million toothpaste tubes. That can’t be good,” Lisa says. “This is why we sell toothpaste tablets. They eliminate the need for toothpaste tubes.” The tablet works like this: put it in your mouth, chew on it, it develops a foam, then brush.

Just Be also offers local handmade goat’s milk soap, locally-collected honey, and soy wax candles, along with “kitchen, laundry, and bathroom decor to finish off the effort to refill and reuse with a touch of class,” Lisa says.

She calls this “nontoxic way of life” another way for people to be kind to themselves and their family.

Her personal credo for kindness came from the most basic of places—her faith.

“I believe in God and Jesus, and it is safe to talk about faith here,” she says with a smile. She sells T-shirts that proclaim her faith, and framed Bible verses hang on the wall. When asked what inspired the idea to open the refillery, Lisa says she had been wanting to start a small business. Then she happened upon a refillery (there are a few others in the area—Watsontown, Coudersport, and Ithaca) and the idea connected with her.

“Jersey Shore was a great place to open something like this,” she says.

Her view is that humans, especially people of faith, should be stewards of the creation left to them by the Creator. This means, to her, humanity is working hand in hand with a higher power to make the world better. Her way of treating the world in a kindly manner is not cutting one giant swathe of ecological change, but in several smaller acts of kindness, especially in Jersey Shore.

“I make sure to buy locally,” Lisa says. “I want to help other businesses and sell their products. This way both their products and my store benefit from it.”

She said if members of the community were to make several minor changes in an environmentally friendly direction, the results could be incredibly positive.

“I really love their commitment to using environmentally friendly and high quality products,” says Elizabeth Taylor, a Jersey Shore wife and mother and just Be patron. She says Lisa’s products are not only great for the home and family, but also “make great gifts!”

Customers who are interested in assisting a local business are always invited to donate glass jars.

“[We are] always looking for glass jar donations to use in the refillery,” Lisa says. Bring clean jars to the store, and they will take care of the sanitation process.

After less than a year in business, Lisa says she “can’t help but to feel humbled and overwhelmed by the grace and blessings God gives us every day.

“This was a dream, and today it is a reality that I could share this initiative with my community. Family, friends, neighbors, and new customers amaze me each day with their overwhelming support.”

For more information, including current hours, find them on Facebook or call (570) 220-1385.