Not-for-profit workers co-operative whole food shop. Sells organic wholefoods, vegetables, eco bodycare and household products, and alternative magazines. Produces a quarterly newsletter, has community noticeboards, and a meeting room available for hire. See online shop for home delivery. Yaffle Cafe is upstairs with different hours (Mon-Sat 11am-5pm). Reported closed June 2023.
20 Reviews
First Review by DJAlbertFreeman
LouisaSmith
Points +259
Bites bites - Edit
Completely vegan shop that sells groceries, toiletries (vegan and eco friendly soaps, shampoo etc) and household essentials. They even have a little baked goods section where you can buy freshly made vegan cakes/tarts/etc. Very cute place💗
Read moreUpdated from previous review on 2022-11-25
Pros: Completely vegan
Cons: Expensive
Guest
Toria535
Points +76
Great shop - Edit
Lots of Vegan goodies, Staff very friendly and helpful
Read morePros: Lots of Vegan options , Fresh Vegetables , Friendly staff
Cons: Location , Parking
Guest
SarahharaS
Points +59
Fully Vegan Shop - Edit
I have been shopping here since it first opened. Lots of variety. Wheelchair access is limited due to narrow aisles but most important section (cake & chocolate) is near the front.
Read moreUpdated from previous review on 2018-04-24
Pros: 100% vegan, Lots of options
Cons: Limited access for wheelchairs
Guest
Pekrova
Points +937
Visited Ten+ years later - Edit
Whilst visiting family we needed our usual food shop, which seemed challenging around where my parents live. I remembered Sound Bites from visiting as a teenager and so we made the trip. Got everything we needed and more- a really thoughtful choice of products and the two cakes we bought from the deli counter were amazing!
Read morePros: Fresh baked cakes, Variety of products
Guest
AleshTomanek
Points +92
Possibly the best and most important shop in Derby - Edit
Soundbites is a fantastic place for any vegans and non-vegans. The staff is very friendly and helpful. The selection of vegan cheeses and vegan food is astounding. They offer lot of Asian ingredients, grains, nuts, seeds, flours and everything you could ever want.
Read morePros: Friendly staff
Guest
thatvibrantchick
Points +77
Amazing vegan shop! - Edit
I visit this shop at least once a week to pick up essentials and I love the variety of products I can find here. The staff are always super friendly and helpful!
Read morePros: Very good selection of products , Always friendly helpful staff
Guest
Chris_D
Points +909
Great vegan selection - Edit
Full of fairly hard-to-find vegan groceries, particularly in the extensive fridge section. Lots of vegan takeaway food and cakes too.
Read morePros: Great chiller section, Vegan takeaway food
Guest
CLRtraveller
Points +8091
Great selection - Edit
Great little store with a full array of vegan products, fresh organic produce, packaged goods, condiments, freshly made sandwiches and hot takeaway snacks, chocolate bars and more. One small table at the back to eat at, or go upstairs to Yaffle Café to eat, or do takeaway.
Read moreUpdated from previous review on 2017-01-26
Pros: wide selection of products, all vegan, fresh, organic produce, takeaway food
Guest
rowansilverbreeze
Points +132
A good vegan shop - Edit
Mines a mixed review. It's great that they are a vegan wholefood shop but they are very pricey. I love their vegan sausage and sage rolls. They seem to have good ethics but didn't know about the inhumane mice traps. Not good. Sort it out!! Get humane ones. Some of the staff are friendly, the rest are very cliqey and not at all friendly. Even though it's a co-op it needs someone to teach some of the staff about professionalism. Prefer to go to independent whole food shops like Roots, Screaming carrot ( a vegan bakery and shop) and The Bluebird shop ( all vegan), in Nottingham.
Read moreUpdated from previous review on 2015-07-21
Pros: vegan, some tasty baked goods
Cons: pricey, some staff unprofessional
Guest
yixzy
Points +84
All vegan shop - Edit
Lovely little shop. Everything is vegan which is great. And although small stocks a surprising amount of things! Sells snacks too, the samosas are lovely and very good value for money. Good hours too.
Read morePros: Very comprehensive stock!, Friendly staff., Open late too!
Cons: None, only a little small in size.
Guest
hack_man
Points +23142
Totally Sound - Edit
Love this shop, first impressions were perfect. Full of tightly packed vegan delights including stuff I had never come across before such as a totally amazing range of fridge-based raw fudge. Absolutely awesome. This place sells anything a typical vegan kitchen desires from flour to floor cleaner and vegetables to vegan meat. I wish I could have spent more time here but was on a tight schedule to catch a train to Mansfield for the League 2 game against Plymouth with my mate Mr P who is a vegetarian conversion work in progress.
Read morePros: amazing range , friendly staff, decent prices
Guest
Miggi
Points +2647
Fabulous range of vegan foods - Edit
Downstairs from Yaffle, we stocked up on vegan food for our holiday. They stock most brands of vegan cheese, organic fruit and veg, some foods we haven't seen anywhere else and locally made pies and sosrolls, vegan croissants, choccy spread etc.
Read moreGreat shop with a nice community feel to it!
Pros: Vegan foods inc croissants, Range of product, Friendly
Guest
turtleveg
Points +1590
great find on a trip through England - Edit
I was only in Derby for an afternoon and loved finding Sound Bites. It's a typical natural foods store, small but full of interesting things from necessities to hard to find vegan treats. And when I spotted they were selling the full line of Go Max Go candy bars, which are from the US but are actually hard to find except for a couple flavors - I was so excited I bought a few Thumbs Up! Cashier was helpful and pleasant.
Read moreGreat location, a short walk from The Strand.
Guest
Rudbeckia
Points +20
Delicious dates - Edit
I have used Soundbites a few times for veg boxes. Excellent service and the fruit is ripe, tasty and luscious. I wish there was a shop like this on every high street as real greengrocers have disappeared and can't always get to markets.
Read morePros: Fresh produce , Vegan and vegetarian sandwiches, Huge range of animal friendly products
Cons: Need more branches to take over the world:-), Tempting to spend too much, Basic store cupboard stuff expensive
Guest
sariofthepie
Points +17
The one and only - Edit
The best food store in Derby for sure. A truly magnificent array of whole foods and all vegan. The staff are all really friendly and the soups/salads/sandwiches are tasty too!
Read moreGuest
veganftw
Points +22
A Place Derby Needed - Edit
A great shop, something that Derby desperately needed, due to it lacking in vegan shops and cafes. Also right near to the bus station.
Read moreEco-friendly too, with products at reasonable prices which are organic, sometimes fair trade and packaged in biodegrable cellopane.
Also sells a variety of chocolate!! Plus sandwiches, salad, cake and soup etc.
Pros: Sells local produce, Eco-friendly, Vegan
Guest
wob.youth
Points +27
Going Downhill - Edit
What was once a vibrant shop/cafe with close links to the community is now a shadow of its former self.
Read moreCafe is gone, friendliness has been replaced with a strange atmosphere and the quality of the veg boxes has taken a dramatic down too : /
Is a shame.
Pros: Location
Cons: No cafe, Atmosphere, Quality of produce
Guest
JohnnySensible
Points +7596
"Of Mice and Men" - Edit
Have not visited yet so disregard my "Rating" - looking forward to my first visit.
Read moreGood / informative site - this is a bold "take" on running a compassionate business.
The store is almost 3 years old now - I hope that they continue on - they are doing a lot of good work in Derby.
"Sound Bites" have an excellent newsletter - see their site for back issues.
Read about the "Sound Bites" story on page 20 of this issue of Vegan Views - http://www.ibiblio.org/veganviews/vv109.pdf
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Mice etc. - my experience is that it is best to be completely open about how a business manages mice / insect visitors.
I have read Patrick's note on VeggiePlaces - I have a similar experience of UK Health Inspectors - I was given a similar ultimatum in the 90's - "kill or close" - we caught as many mice as we could but some did die - even in the best humane traps that we could find.
See - http://www.petacatalog.org/prodinfo.asp?number=HP200 - there must be a UK supplier - "Sound Bites" may like to stock & sell them also!
I remember the constant "battle" very well - we even invited some customers / friends to wander around the building / cellars & give their input re. "mouse proofing".
I have met farmers who provided homes for numerous unloved / abandoned (neutered) cats - cats are not an option for a food store which is locked up at night.
Very good info - http://www.nps.gov/public_health/inter/info/general/NPS_RP_Manual_v2.pdf
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A planet infested by humans! - http://infestedwithhumans.com/?tab=Home
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Every business makes some mistakes - the trick is to learn from the mistakes & move forward.
Guest
skinnydog
Points +59
Cafe no more! - Edit
They don't have a cafe as such, but there are two tables where you can sit and eat any food bought from the shop. It's a shame they don't make their own vegan cakes as they have the facilities. Derby is lacking vegan cakes!!!
Read morePros: It's vegan products, Good info board, Wide selection of stuff
Cons: odd atmosphere, they DON'T use humane pest controlls, Watch out for poor veg
Guest
DJAlbertFreeman
Points +47
Sound as a pound - Edit
Review: This excellent little shop has been there since December 2005. They have been ambitious despite its modest size, using the venue as a wholefood shop and social change networking point. They stock a range of vegan foods, and locally produced veg, and also have a small deli with some lovely takeaway salads and sandwiches. The tofu and seaweed rissole/pattie thingy beginning with a "G" was the nicest tofu thing I've had in ages..! They are currently re-assessing how viable a cafe is in their small shop, but I hope they manage to find a solution because as their excellent newsletter "The Nibbler" says, "every city needs a veggie cafe!"
Read morePros: organic, excellent food, ambitious
Cons: I don't live in Derby, size of premises
Guest
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