good bulk groceries for rural areas?

[sarahwpen]

hey,
i am in a rural area of the southeast and am just plain tired of the grocery store. i also have a large family. we grow a lot of our own stuff, but for the stuff we have to buy, i would like to start buying in bulk about once a month. does anyone know of a good place that i can mail order or internet order from?

[gothnurse3]

I am interested too. Thanks

[hibana]

Have you looked into ordering through a local store? Whole Foods does orders of cases of stuff and large bags of bulk goods with a 10% discount off shelf price. "Foreign" markets will often have staples in bulk at even lower prices.

[xJewelx]

Here's a site that sells grocery items in bulk: http://www.meijer.com They also have a lot of other household items. Hope this helps!

[BeagleMommy]

The rural area I live in has large Amish and Mennonite communities nearby (in different directions). We get many of our staples from Yoder's Bulk Foods (Mennonite) and many baked goods from Yoder's Bakery & Greenhouse (Amish). There are places in these communities where one could buy eggs, chicken, milk (raw), strawberries, in season, and bulk foods like flour, sugar, honey, sorghum, spices (great prices on spices!), boxed cereals (which I don't buy, but have seen), nuts for cooking, dried beans, lye for soapmaking, really a large variety of things. One of my daughter's favorite cups came from an Amish bulk foods store. It's stainless steel and about 6 ounces.

The other thing we do I we found a local farmer on localharvest.org
They are 2 1/2 hours away, but every other week they drive to a city that's just 1 1/2 away and we can pick up groceries. No, we don't go every other week, but we could if we needed something. They provide us with beef, pork, chicken, turkey, some supplements, and some staples.

We do still buy some things from Kroger (orange juice, coffee, etc.), but rarely go to Walmart (paper towels & toilet paper) anymore. Before this, those were my two local (in the next town) grocery stores.

We also found a quite local egg lady. She lives just outside of city limits and has wonderful green, brown, and pink-ish eggs for $1.50/ dozen! And she's a wonderfully sweet lady, to boot!

Yes, it takes more time to shop this way, but it is real. My kids are learning that some days there simply aren't any eggs. That they don't just come from some magical place in a fluorescent lit store. They have met the chickens. It's a good experience for us all.

If there were a WholeFoods or something similar closer than three hours, I'd probably make a monthly trip there, but I'm happy with our solution so far.

Oh, I almost forgot to add farmer's markets in season! Great resource!

And I have just started researching Alice.com
I'm not through comparing prices yet, but it looks interesting. Free shipping on everything. Even if it's a tad higher, it might be worth it for my "Walmart stuff" since taking to kids to Walmart is quite an ordeal!

[kdabbler]

To add to the suggestions posted above...

There is also Amazon.com. You can either get Amazon Prime Membership or simply order enough each month to get the free shipping.

[luv-my-boys]

I too was going to suggest Amazon. Often they have free shipping with a $25 order. They carry a lot of items and in some cases they do offer cases or bulk lots of things. Plus they are delivered to your door (assuming UPS services your area)

[heathenmom]

You could try getting involved with a co-op. We do one through Breadbeckers.com, but it's quarterly. They offer grains, beans, some nuts, other baking supplies, etc. My area also has a monthly Frontier co-op and a couple of other food co-ops.

If you're looking for baking supplies, I've heard of folks that develop a relationship with a local bakery, then tag onto their wholesale orders (Dawn Foods is a wholesaler ... we got almost all of our wheat berries and 50 lbs. of rolled oats through them for a ridiculously-cheap price).

HTH

[PlayaMama]

i'm not sure if azurestandard.com delivers there but it's worth a try.

you could also look at getting a membership at united foods unfi.com

[blessedmum]

I get mine delivered from clnf.org-They are a Seventh day adventist org. They deliver for free if you order enough. I am not sure where you live, but you might contact them to see if there is anything like that in your area.
Oh you don't have to be SDA either.