Wholesale Shopping?

[dakotadog]

I shop sometimes at the Restaurant Depot and find that it sometimes has a god deal on bulk dry goods, spices and meats. I recently found out about Jetro in Needham. has anyone been there? I am really looking for a wholesale grocery supplier. My issue with RD is that all the canned goods are in #10 cans. I can't use all the product before it spoils. I know i can repackage, but that's really not practical. i am looking for case lots of grocery sized cans and other goods. I have a business licence so B2B isn't an issue.

The other thing i am looking for are the guys that supply the Nurseries with vegetable seedlings and seeds. I know they have to be local. I know where several commercial landscape supply places are but it's all flowers, shrubs and ornamental


Ideas?

 

[Hiltonizer]

Quite frankly, it doesn't get any cheaper than Market Basket for grocery sized products, particularly their generics. Most of the generic non-perishable stuff is sold at a loss. Market Basket is a real-estate company first, grocery store second. You can really kill it if you keep tabs on the sale paper too.

For bulk packed stuff like sugar and flour, Sam's Club seems to be the best priced of the warehouse style stores.. certainly the most convenient in my case. Margins are already really tight in the grocery space, so even a marginal bit of travel or other inconvenience will quickly lay waste to any savings you might be able to track down.

There is a restaurant supplier in Maine I have looked into before, that's supposed to be open to the public, but I haven't gone yet. I would need to be up there anyway to make it worth it. Struggling to remember the name of it but will edit once the force is strong with my google-fu

 

[MisterHappy]

well, as to the nurseries' supply -- go ask your local nursery.

WOrst that they can do is release the hounds.

 

[dakotadog]

I certainly agree with you about Market Basket and have gotten some scorching deals there too. Right now their flyer has pasta for .69 a box which is much cheaper than anything I have seen in bulk.

What I was missing are some of the things the restraunt supplier can do. Like bulk beans, flour and rice. Not sure how it compares to Sams, but I got 50 pounds of rice for $17 So, I am just looking into options. I have also been trying to find a non-mail order source for TVP

While we are at it let me put in a plug for Blood Farm in Groton Absolutely better than the market for local ly raised meat and if you can but in bulk it's much cheaper per pound for New England raised meats.

I will swing by Russel's in Wayland and ask the question. If I get an answer I will post it up here

 

[Hiltonizer]

What I was missing are some of the things the restraunt supplier can do. Like bulk beans, flour and rice. Not sure how it compares to Sams, but I got 50 pounds of rice for $17 So, I am just looking into options. I have also been trying to find a non-mail order source for TVP

I like Sam's for that stuff... I buy the 25lb boxes of parboiled rice for $10 just because I prefer to store parboiled.. but the regular long grain riceland stuff is also $17/50lb. A 25lb sack of flour is $9 and change. A 50lb sack of sugar recently ran me $30

Have yet to find bulk dry beans there though unfortunately. Market basket however has all types of dry beans for 99c/lb. (including cannelini fortunately if you like baked beans) Not the cheapest particularly if you are putting up 100's of lbs, but for my purposes the small price penalty is worth the convenience of just picking up enough for a 1gallon mylar bag every time I go to the store... and you can more easily put up variety.

Let us know if you find a local TVP source. Sam's brick and mortar doesn't have it, but online it works out to buy one get one on Auguson farms stuff. They also sell in buckets. I usually throw a few cans in with my order of stuff like dairy powders.