I was pleasantly surprised to find over 50 varieties of spices in their bulk food section, and was even more pleased when I saw the prices. I decided to compare the price of spices from the bulk section with those you can buy packaged off the shelf.
The price differential was so large I even went back to double-check if I recorded the prices correctly. The reason spices from the bulk bin work out so much cheaper is because you're not paying for the expensive packaging. Many of the off-the-shelf spices come packaged in glass bottles, but even those that just come in simple plastic containers cost significantly more than buying spices from the bulk bins. If you wanted to you could go out and buy little spice containers at a dollar store for fifty cents each and still come in at under half the price of the off-the-shelf spices.
I'm sure the spices at Costco and Sam's Club are significantly cheaper per oz. than the little bottles you buy off-the-shelf, but you have to buy in much larger quantities than you may otherwise need. For many spices I find I only use 6-8 oz of a particular spice a year. Spices can spoil quickly making buying the 27 oz. containers from Costco infeasible for me.
5 comments:
This is great info Beth! My OCD NEVER allows me to buy out of bulk bins and I hate it! I start to hyperventilate thinking about it. I've tried, I really have. I end up throwing it away. Maybe you can pray for me.
Of course I will pray for you. You have to remember too that cooking weeds out a lot of germs.
Germs, shmerms! At least half of my food purchases come from the produce and bulk aisles at WinCo. I feed my family on about $3./day/person, thanks to those bulk bins (and other tricks).
My dad used to tell me stuff like "some kid probably just licked his finger and stuck it in that sugar" so I have enough imagery in my memory bank to keep me away from the bins for good. The deals are way too good though, and almost everything I buy in bulk gets cooked anyway. No biggie.
I wonder how the bulk spices measure up against Dollar Tree and the "ethnic" food aisles. Those are other good options for lower priced spices. They come in packages too.
Amy I do get that on a rational level it all makes sense. I'm just being honest when I say I can't do it. If I could just shrug it off I would. I own that it's my issue and probably not a healthy one but it does me know good to shrug it off when I would literally gag and not be able to move any further. To me it is a biggie.
There are things I can tolerate and look past that would gross out the sanest person. *shrug*
Amy, dollar tree does have some good deals but only on basic spices. Ethic stores like the Bingo Market are great, but I just rarely shop there unless I want rice wrappers or something like that. So Winco works for me because I go there consistently.
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