buying in bulk

[Maître]

I often see people mention how they buy food in bulk, but I've spent literally hours searching the internet and couldn't find any websites where the bulk prices even matched the supermarket prices here for the 500g bags of lentils (£90 or so).

Is there some website people use or can someone give me some shop names in the uk that have lentils in bulk? (I mean like 5kg or so, maybe a bit less - but 500g bags is pathetic since I eat 200g a day usually and it's so much packaging, I wouldn't mind some savings too :P)

[Hemlock]

I want to know this too, we need big bags of nuts and dried fruit for our raw diet. I've had a look on the internet and there are quite a few places that sell in bulk but I haven't had time to do a price comparison yet.
I just looked up "Buy wholefoods in bulk" on google and it came up with loads1

[Risker]

I've been having the same problem, in a supermarket I went in recently they had huge bags of flour and pasta and big drums of olive oil but when compared to the price of the cheapest small container it actually worked out more expensive. It's even more expensive to buy a big sack of potatoes rather than a 2.5kg bag.

Approved Food (http://www.approvedfood.co.uk/) can be quite good, they often sell bulk foods but the stock changes a lot so you just have to keep checking to see if there's enough things you want to justify paying for delivery.

[jimmeh]

Yeah it would be fantastic if there was just one online store where I could get everything, instead of ordering from lots of different places.

[harpy]

Peope often mention Suma in this connection don't they - they certainly sell in bulk, don't know how the prices work out but you would have to be sure you were comparing like with like to make a proper comparison. I believe a lot of their stuff is organic, fair traded etc.

Buying in bulk doesn't make much sense for us as there are only two of us and we don't seem to get through any one item particularly fast. I suppose if one had like-minded neighbours one could buy jointly.

Maitre, £90 for a 500g bag of lentils seems a bit steep, you should shop around a bit ;)

[Risker]

Tesco Wholefoods Red Split Lentils 1Kg - £1.76

Suma Lentils - red split 25kg - £35.65 (£1.42/kg)

Minimum order £100 & carriage charge applies.


They do organic as well for £42.50 for 25kg but of course you were asking about saving money, not wasting it :p

[Blueberry]

I know I go on about this on another forum, but if you have an Asian community nearby, go to their supermarkets. I buy everything there when it comes to grain and pulses, flour, rice, etc. I can get branded for the same price as supermarkets own in regular bags but it works out so much cheaper in bulk. I split a lot with my daughter. 2kgs of pistacchios for example is £5.99. Compare that to Tesco (yuk) at £3.99 for 300g. I get everything from green raisins to 2kg jars of olives.

[jimmeh]

^ I've been doing that, but just wondered if there was a (lazy) online way that I could bulk buy

[Blueberry]

Lol... have you asked them to deliver? Mine does within a five mile radius, free of charge. But I'm 8 miles away... so i have to go there in person! Usually if it'sa regular order they'll be very accommodating x

[jimmeh]

Yeah I suppose they would do that if I asked nicely. Or I could just stop being so bloody lazy. I love shopping in new Asian supermarkets. I always find something I've never seen before.

[Blueberry]

Me too...and I've been shopping in them for 20 years! This week I found Pakistani Wadis, which are on my cooker as we speak in a curry. And my local meat based deli does stuffed vine leaves, which are awesome, but work out about 60p each... in the Asian shop I found cans of them for £1.29 and there are about 15 inside! The deli buys them in cans cos when I asked for the ingredients he got the can out... rip off!

[rachaelgerk]

I know I go on about this on another forum, but if you have an Asian community nearby, go to their supermarkets. I buy everything there when it comes to grain and pulses, flour, rice, etc. I can get branded for the same price as supermarkets own in regular bags but it works out so much cheaper in bulk. I split a lot with my daughter. 2kgs of pistacchios for example is £5.99. Compare that to Tesco (yuk) at £3.99 for 300g. I get everything from green raisins to 2kg jars of olives.

Good idea! I hadn't even thought of this... thanks :)

[pusskins]

OK, re. buying bulk. I would like to be able to purchase soya milk in bulk, like a number of trays of 12 or 24 Alpro litre cartons (for example). Can't find anywhere on t'interweb. Help, anybody?