Comments mxphile has made

Azure Standard, local grocery, Kettle Care

I get all my bulk eco-products from Azure Standard (azurestandard.com).  They are a co-op type of organization.  If you live in the northwestern U.S., deliveries (including perishables and frozen foods) are made through their own refrigerated delivery fleet.  There is a required minimum order amount of $400, but they have a system where you can either join an existing drop point near you or start one of your own so you can aggregate orders with friends and neighbors to meet the $400 minimum.  There is no delivery charge and, in my case, no sales tax.   Deliveries are scheduled every 2 or 4 weeks, depending on your area.

If you don't live within their delivery area, you can't order perishables and frozen foods, but you can get staples delivered via UPS. The $400 minimum doesn't apply in this case, but you pay for shipping.

They have a good selection of, well, everything,  from organic frozen meats to 5 gallon buckets of laundry detergent to plant starters to organic cotton underwear to mouthwash.  Order a single, case or bulk package of many staple items.  Their wide selection and good prices make up for the inconvenience of either ordering $400 at a time or dealing with drop points.  We don't have a problem meeting the $400 minimum because we basically do our grocery shopping through Azure and order frozen meats, canned goods, cleaning products, personal hygiene products, etc.  But then we order once every 2-3 months and we have two freezers.  Word to the wise, though, their fresh produce can be hit or miss.  And the eggs aren't super-fresh.  We get fresh produce and eggs once a week through our local co-op (Fresh Abundance) and/or our local grocery store.

Our local Fred Meyer supermarket also has a nice nutrition center (i.e. where you find the organic products and bulk food bins) and anything the nutrition center normally stocks, as well as a few things that are in their catalog but are not normally stocked, can be ordered by the case (which unfortunately doesn't address the packaging issue).  Nutrition center special orders receive a 10% discount, whereas normal grocery special orders do not.  So it doesn't hurt to ask your local grocer if you can order by the case or bulk package and if you will receive a discount.  I haven't tried, but I imagine that any of the bulk bin items would also be available for order (like oatmeal or flour).

For shampoo and conditioner, we get one gallon jugs from Kettle Care.  Very, VERY eco-friendly products with a wonderful smell.On Umbra on buying eco-products in bulk posted 1 year, 6 months ago 17 Responses