Bulking Up

This morning, the hubs and I received big props at the coop for our bulk saviness, and I just wanted to share a little bit of my pride here.  Please pardon my patting myself on the back, but I think this is important.  Just to clarify, I'm talking about the bulk section of the market with the bags and pens, not the buying club markets (although those have some serious benefits).

The benefits of buying in bulk are numerous and tie together the personal and the environmental.  Everything we do impacts other beings on this planet, and every purchase is a vote for what we like and want.  When you buy in the bulk section you are usually buying healthy whole foods- dried fruit, nuts, grains, beans, etc.  I'm talking vitamins and fiber!  You might find processed snack foods and pastas in bulk, but most of the time even these are somewhat healthy.  Yum!  Ginger chews! 

Buying in bulk also means that you can use and reuse your own containers, which means you can get as much or as little as you want and have minimum environmental impact by eliminating disposable packaging.  Now this is where I sometimes feel like a bulk lunatic.  I show up at the store with empty jars and fabric bags, and leave the store with full containers.  My containers are all tare weighted (so I don't get charged for the weight of the jars), and I have stickers so I can write down what's in them and the PLU.  (Listen for cheers from the cashiers!)  I have a few large jars that are probably 2 gallons, but I mostly use mason jars.  Mason jars are ubiquitous in my house, especially now since I am eating a ton of pickles this winter.

I have yet to do a thorough cost analysis of buying in bulk versus buying packaged foods.  Prices fluctuate, but right now the spices are much cheaper when you buy bulk.  A tiny jar of cinnamon costs more than twice as much as the same volume of bulk cinnamon.  Shampoo costs about half as much money when you buy bulk.  However, I found the best deal on olive oil to be the large metal tins (a savings of about $15 dollars compared to the bulk).  That being said, my coop has a large variety of olive oil and in all the other comparisons the bulk wins out on price.

Buying in the bulk section is easy, and you don't have to look like a freaky hippie to do it.  Just stay organized.   Bring clean containers with labels.  Always record (on the container) the contents, the tare, and the PLU.  (Don't write it down as a list on a piece of paper and then dictate to the cashier.  This is bound to backfire-you'll lose the list or forget something and then your saviness flies out the window and you look flaky.)  Finish off the experience by being your own bagger.  Your cashier just did double duty by typing in all those numbers, so give her a hand with the bags.