Possibly My Biggest Clean Eating Grocery Money-Saver
Updated: Mar 5, 2022
Save even more money on grocery items you use the most by buying in bulk!
I had mentioned in an earlier post about my online grocery store pick how I was so desperate at one time that I started my own food co-op drop site as a drop coordinator to have the availability of clean, organic grocery items.
That did eventually become overwhelming as our family grew, which left me looking for other options. Ultimately, I had heard through the grapevine about a company called Azure Standard which had a nearby drop location. They are a family-owned company on a mission to provide high-quality and affordable, clean, organic, sustainable products. They give the option for you to have your orders delivered through the mail carrier system, or through a drop site nearby.
Here's an example.....
One of the grocery items we go through quite frequently is organic cane sugar. I make cookies and desserts to avoid buying packaged goodies off the shelf. As well as use it to sweeten iced tea.
At the time of this writing at our local grocery store, the rock bottom price you can get organic cane sugar is $1.32 per pound in a 4-pound bag. Which is also the cheapest price in comparing neighboring grocery stores in surrounding counties.
At the time of this writing through Azure Standard, you can get organic cane sugar for $1.16 per pound in a 50-pound bag.
Granted, this may not sound huge at first. But if you calculate the bigger picture savings, you begin to see the overall benefit. For example, it would take 12 and 1/2 of the 4-pound bags from the local grocery store to equal one 50-pound bag from Azure Market. 12 and 1/2 of the 4-pound bags would cost $66. Where one 50 pound bag, which is the exact same amount, would be $57.75. That's a savings of $8.25 for a single item that you use frequently. Combining these savings with all the other frequently used items you can get is where the savings really begin to stack up.
What all you can get here.....
It would likely be much easier for me to list items that you cannot get through Azure Standard than it would to explain what all you can get. However, I'll bullet-point a handful of product types available from them below:
Dairy products
Frozen meat
Fresh produce
Pasta
Grains
Supplements & Minerals
Health & Beauty
This list really just scratches the surface but does at least give you an idea of the items you could see if there may be deeper savings on than you've currently found.
A word on sale items.....
I never close my order completely out without at least perusing through their sales page. I've gotten some really deeply discounted products through this section before. And the sale items aren't limited to certain products either. Anything on the site could find its way to the sales section.
These discounts typically range from 5 to 15 percent off of the already wholesale price, but I have seen discounts higher than 15 percent on more than one occasion. Likely the best discounts I've seen in the sales section are for produce. And this can be (not always) for the obvious reason of nearing the end of its shelf stability, so be sure you are prepared to either consume or store if that be the case.
Where to store all of this stuff.....
The easiest to manage and most reliable method of storage for bulk items, that I have found, are 5-gallon food-grade buckets with Gamma Seal Lids. For the organic cane sugar example I used above, I do buy the 50-pound bag. I have two of these storage buckets that hold this amount easily. I keep a smaller, more user-friendly container in my kitchen that I use out of, and then refill from the gamma bucket once it is depleted. It's a bit like walking over to the grocery store (which is your pantry a few feet away) for another bag of sugar.
So, tell me about the downsides.....
As I've said before, am saying now, and will say again, if you look hard enough....you can always find something to critique. For this topic, I would say my only complaint is that you have to be somewhat flexible if you are ordering your shipment to the drop site. Which, I mostly do simply due to the cost of having my items shipped through the mail carrier system. You place your order each month about a week ahead of the actual drop, so it takes a bit of planning ahead to be sure you will be available to pick up on the day and time announced once the orders are confirmed.
I know this may not seem like a big deal at all to many people who as long as they had a few days of notice wouldn't mind. But for me, being an overly obsessive planner, I do have to add it to the critique list even though there is absolutely no way to improve upon their process that I can think of. The truck routes aren't set until the orders are confirmed, so it would be impossible to know the day and time for certain with each order.
At the end of the day.....
This is an incredible way to buy healthy, clean, organic, sustainable products in bulk and save your hard-earned dollars doing so. If you would like to learn more about how it works, just visit the website and click on How Azure Works.