Where to order bulk beans & grains and spices?

[ManyMountains]

Does anyone order bulk bags of beans and grains online? Near us is a Safeway, which doesn't have bulk goods, and Whole Foods, which does but is expensive and small quantities.  I do shop at Costco, but the only organic bulk stuff is brown rice and sometimes Bobs Red Mill (both of which we buy).

We cook all our foods from scratch, and buy mostly organic items. I think we could save a lot of money if we could order 10-25 pound bags of our most commons legumes and grains (though I'd have to be careful about shipping costs not eating away the price savings).

Also, what about spices? Again, we buy whatever we can at Costco, and then get the rest at Whole Foods or Safeway. Any online spice shop recommendations?

Thank you!

[grantmeaname]

We have a snooty-ass regular grocery story where we get our bulk spices. Others we get from ethnic grocery stores. Have you tried either of those options?

[rollie]

I buy my bulk legumes and grains at Whole Foods or Mom's organic, but spices are very overpriced there. I don't know where you live, but for spices I recommend going to the local Indian store. Indians use all sorts of spices in huge quantities, and so those tiny little bottles at the grocery store only work for one week in an Indian kitchen. If you have a store anywhere in the vicinity, you can get a lot of spices, legumes, and rice there at a great price. The spices often come in 200 gram bags for just a few dollars each. Not necessarily organic, but spices are generally very hard to get organic.

If you are nowhere near an Indian store, check online at sites like these:

http://spicesonline.info/indian-spices/indian-spices-whole-c-2.html?page=1&sort=20a

http://www.indianblend.com/#

[Gin]

Do you have a Azure Standard drop off near you?  [MOD EDIT: Spam link removed.] is a bulk organic food co-op. 

[shortly]

I get Anasazi beans from Adobe Milling Co. in Dove Creek Co. [MOD EDIT: Spam link removed.] They have other varieties of beans along with spices and other stuff.  Anasazi beans seem to be less "gassy" than pintos or most other beans I've tried.  $50.00 for a 50# bag.

[AmbystomaOpacum]

http://www.thespicehouse.com/ is basically the only place I get spices anymore. Shipping is a little high... but the spices are amazing (you have not tasted paprika until you've had their Hungarian paprika; regular paprika tastes like air compared to theirs) and the prices are good.

[balags]

I have ordered from this place before and the service is very professional. They even called me back when they wanted to ship an alternate brand or change the pack size to ship it to me, all for no cost. Grocery rates are at least a dollar less than many online competitors and $2 or lesser than shops in cities. And shops do not ship 60 lbs of groceries to your doorstep for free!! Stuff arrives in 5 days even in the middle of nowhere!!

[MOD EDIT: Spam link removed.]

[rollingstone]

I've heard good stuff about the LDS canneries. You can buy online or through a brick and mortar shop, and the shop has slightly cheaper rates. Their ~100 locations and rates can be found on this website. http://providentliving.org

[rebel100]

We shop at Honeyville for bigger bulk purchases,  [MOD EDIT: Spam link removed.]  only $4.94 to ship your order in CONUS

[rebel100]

I've heard good stuff about the LDS canneries. You can buy online or through a brick and mortar shop, and the shop has slightly cheaper rates. Their ~100 locations and rates can be found on this website. http://providentliving.org

The cannery local to me is closed to non Mormons, I understand that varies from place to place though.

[Bill76]

We have used Azure Standard with no complaints.  Also, our local Whole Foods has told us that if we want to buy a whole bag of oats, they'll happily order one and hold it for us.  Their bulk prices on oats are actually pretty competitive with the other sources we've used.

For rice and beans, we sometimes stock up at the DeKalb farmer's market when we're in Atlanta; they have a pretty decent selection of bulk spices too.  That's probably not helpful for most of the world though.

[arebelspy]

This thread has had 5 separate posters with 4 or less posts post a bunch of links.

It either really excited the spammers, or somehow got a bunch of lurkers to post their first post.

I decided to edit out all the ones from posters who have less than 5 posts AND have been registered less than a month.

Meeting one of those two criteria shouldn't be too hard.

Apparently the key words "where to order bulk" really got some spam bots excited.

Most of them you can still Google even without the links, given the names (Azure Standard, Honeyville, etc.)

[ManyMountains]

Moderator - thanks for the explanation. I don't know if any or all of the links were spam, or just dedicated MMM readers who are infrequent posters.

Thank you all for the suggestions. We have a Whole Foods near us and we already buy in bulk. The question is, can we get it cheaper?

This week Whole Foods has 20% off all bulk items, so we stocked up for the next month or two. This also gave me a super long receipt of only bulk items.

Armed with my super long receipt, I was able to easily compare prices across various sites. The clear winner is Azure Standard. Their prices are 10-60% cheaper than Whole Foods, and they have the best selection of both organic and conventional items. However, ordering from them isn't as straightforward as most of the other sites. From my research,  it seems like Azure Standard is in the business of supplying Food Co-ops and other grocery stores. To order, you need to call them and see if there is a food drop-off near you. If yes, then you can make your order and the next time a truck drives that route, they'll drop of your food at that location (it could be a grocery store, a person's house, a co-operative living place, etc). If there is not a drop off, you can arrange for one but your minimum order must be $550. That's a lot of beans, oats and spices! You can designate your home a drop-off point, and other people can make their own orders to help you reach that $550 minimum. Also note that while some bulk items are available in 5 pound bags, but most are only available in 25 pounds (at least for rice, beans, lentils, grains, etc). Azure is located in Oregon and they will ship to me in California, but I don't know the extent of their entire delivery network for the rest of you. I haven't ordered yet, so I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks "Gin" for the recommendation!

Who has used Azure and what is your experience? I live in the SF Bay Area (Walnut Creek) - anybody nearby want to join in on a bulk order?

I have used Penzeys for spices. Frontier Co-op seems good too, from my online comparison. Honeyville had good prices but limited selection. Thanks everybody for your input!

[chicagomeg]

I got some good prices on Vine.com for quinoa recently. Not "bulk" persay, but all organic/natural products on their site & lots of coupons since it's a newer site.

[mustachianit]

I purchase organic drie beans on Amazon.  Not surr if you Tried them or not.

[ASquared]

I like mountainroseherbs.com for bulk organic spices.  Premium quality and I like that they are organic. 

Not sure if it's the cheapest - but it's less than any of my local stores bulk bins are.

[KCalla]

I buy most of my beans at a nearby "Natural Grocers".  This is the name of a chain of stores in the Western US.  The beans have always been very clean, fresh, and reasonable.  Organic is available as an option on many varieties.  Great selection of flours and styles of oatmeal.  I love that they take the care to refrigerate ground grains to preserve their qualities.

[galaxie]

I use the local Indian store for grains and spices, but I'm not looking for organic ones.

[infogoon]

I buy my bulk legumes and grains at Whole Foods or Mom's organic, but spices are very overpriced there. I don't know where you live, but for spices I recommend going to the local Indian store. Indians use all sorts of spices in huge quantities, and so those tiny little bottles at the grocery store only work for one week in an Indian kitchen. If you have a store anywhere in the vicinity, you can get a lot of spices, legumes, and rice there at a great price. The spices often come in 200 gram bags for just a few dollars each. Not necessarily organic, but spices are generally very hard to get organic.

I just wanted to chime in and second this -- we get most of our spices from the local Indian grocer, where a half-pound bag costs about as much as one of those little glass jars at the grocery store. We generally just pour some into a baby food jar, label it with a Dymo, and refill from the bag as needed.

[aglassman]

You can get some killer deals on spices on Amazon.

[Tami1982]

I know that Fred Meyer (Kroger) will sell you their bulk items in the bulk size bag at a discount.  IE: If you buy the 25lb bag there is a percentage off.  You can place orders for anything that Frontier sells through the natural foods section.

[abhe8]

azure standard
country life natural foods
amazon
local grocery store (ask for bulk rate)

[TomTX]

http://www.thespicehouse.com/ is basically the only place I get spices anymore. Shipping is a little high... but the spices are amazing (you have not tasted paprika until you've had their Hungarian paprika; regular paprika tastes like air compared to theirs) and the prices are good.

Um, I did a quick price check and they seem rather high. Something like double what I pay at http://www.atlanticspice.com/ - admittedly, Atlantic Spice has less of a selection and has traditionally been geared at "bulk" buyers - if you want celery seed, plan to get a pound. But that pound is only $3. Note: They have a minimum order of $30.

I've been buying from them for over 10 years. Quality is quite good. And they now have a selection of teas and such.

I still buy from Costco when they have what I want - but selection is limited. Mostly I get garlic powder and cinnamon there...