Are there any ways to find bulk food stores in your area?


We have a healthfood store, but its NOT a bulk food store.. health/bulk would be even better.. the healthfood store in town is expensive and doesn't have a lot of items i am interested in.

BUmp

Have you tried looking for a coop in your area? That is my only suggestion. Or try another town with a healthfood store. We used to have two HFS. One has bulk foods and the other did not. The one that didn't have bulk foods went out of biz.

i found this http://www.bulkfoods.com/default.htm but i havent ordered from them.

WOW that is like a bulk food store on the net litterally .. way cool

That online bulk store is really high in volume but a great price for the items that we would get. I have done intense volume of bulk in the past and I have a friend who filled an entire train car with food and building items before Y2K (and has been using them since) so I know how to store the foods... but buying in bulk for me means 10 lbs... not 30. you know? Something that I can see the end of using so that I don't get sick of it and let it spoil. So I don't buy in those intense quanties anymore.

The biggest one we have around is Costco. We get lots of our stuff from there because ours carries tons of organic and health foods now. O milk, O eggs, O butter ($9 for 3 lbs, that is what I paid in the grocer for Dairy Gold butter), O berry mixes (which I don't buy because I pick them each year), O cereal (BareNaked), and whole grain cereals (Paul Newman), O Fig Newmans ($5 for three packages), even O lettuces in the back. The other place we have around here is the Co-op. I love our Co-op, but it is a bit pricey for the things I like to get so when we are tight with our budget I shop at our local Fred Meyers. They have wonderful bulk selections. But it seems you wouldn't be asking this if you had something that avalible to you. ;)

I would check out Asure Standard (http://www.azurestandard.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=shp.categoryIndex) You may have to get together with friends to split up some of the items because they come in HUGE quanties sometimes... but it is a great way to get what you want delivered to a site near you. Start small and split every thing with friends in 1 lb sets. Then you will not spend too much and you will also be able to try more things. Then once you know what you love from there, you can put in your own orders (smallest has to be $300 if I remember right) and stock up on what you love to have on hand once per year or whatever you need.

Good luck!

Val

ETA: Sometimes you can get one jar of things for a great price to try before you go ahead and get the "bulk" like this: Organic Wild Blueberry Spread - $2.50 (http://www.azurestandard.com/index.cfm?FuseAction=shp.ProductDetails&ProductCode=JC071), Organic Baby Swiss Cheese - $4.95 (http://www.azurestandard.com/index.cfm?FuseAction=shp.ProductDetails&ProductCode=CH118), and Organic Chili Bean Mix -$4.90 (http://www.azurestandard.com/index.cfm?FuseAction=shp.ProductDetails&ProductCode=BE080). Great way to test stuff out when your friends don't want to... lol!

We have a store in town here and its the closest we have to a bulk store .. its more like a second hand food store if that makes any since .. some times they have things sometimes they don't. ( However sometimes i don't want to go in because they REALLY push their religion on people and i don't like that, but for the prices i do bear it quietly and go quickly.)

They get their items from truck drivers who want to get rid of loads.. buying for $2 a case.. for often name brand items. They told me that and i was shocked they are making a KILLING. They go to auctions and buy overstock. They also go to milk and egg distributors and buy close to being out dated milk and eggs where some in the case are broken so they are returned. If you get there the day that they get in the eggs and milk within the hour litterally you can get 2.5 dozen eggs ( or was it 4 HMmm it was a flat square box im thinking 3-4dozen .. it's been a while can you tell.. the inlaws will not stoop to that its to degrading *rme*) for $2.. a gallon of whole milk $2-1 depending on how close the date is( he had some that was out that day once and he gave it to me free WOOHOO) . Butter $1 for 2lb stick. Ground beef 93%meat for $1.50/lb.. name brand hot dogs $.50.. Also they have flour in 50lb bags for i think it was $13 .. the 100lb was $20 i think.. They also had sugar for similar pricing.

The problem with the place is however that you never know when things will be in.. you have to go several times a week to really reep benifits. Hopefully when we move it is close so the gas is less to go there. Although sometimes if you buy a lot he rounds down in price sometimes which is even better.

( The online bulk food store really gave me another idea of something i would like to do definately * nods*)

check this out too to see if they are near you. where in nc are you?
http://www.earthfare.com/

when we lived in athens, that is where i shopped for my bulk & organic stuff. they're not too expensive either. i loved that place & i wish there was one closer to where i am now.