Top Tips for Navigating the Bulk Bins

If you’re like most gro­cery shop­pers, your expe­ri­ence with those tow­er­ing bins of var­i­ous grains and nuts and pow­ders goes no far­ther than a casu­al glance as you make your way from the pro­duce sec­tion over to the freez­er. You see bags and scales and that just seems too dif­fi­cult for an already fraz­zled trip to the store. Ladies and gen­tle­men, let me be the first to tell you that the bulk bins are not scary. In fact, they can be a fab­u­lous way to save mon­ey and try new things! Here are my top 8 tips for using the bulk bins to your advan­tage:

1. Take a stroll through the bulk bin sec­tion and see what it has to offer! Glance at the labels, so you are aware of the selec­tion and may think of try­ing it out the next time you’re in need of a pantry refill or are mak­ing a new recipe.
2. Beware of the “Cost­co effect!” I love Cost­co as much as the next girl, but how many times have I left that store with ONLY what I had on my list in tow? Almost nev­er. The bulk bins can work the same way, with seem­ing­ly end­less options. Remem­ber, regard­less of how good of a deal that mil­let was, it will still go bad dur­ing the 6 years it may take you to eat it all…
3. When shop­ping for a recipe, be sure to jot down how much of an ingre­di­ent you need and buy just slight­ly more. This will ensure that you have enough for the recipe, with a small mar­gin of error. Some stores, like MOM’s and Whole Foods, have a bulk bin for spices, which allows you to avoid buy­ing an entire con­tain­er when you only need ¹⁄₄ teaspoon.
4. Take the time, at least ini­tial­ly, to com­pare prices at dif­fer­ent stores. Most con­sumers these days have one main gro­cery store they use, and then sev­er­al on the fringe where they buy a few items at each. Take stock of the bulk bins in all of your stores, and price com­pare the items you use most often.
5. Bulk bins are fab­u­lous, but they are an absolute no-no for Celi­ac Dis­ease and severe aller­gies. Most bulk bins use met­al or plas­tic scoops that are attached to the des­ig­nat­ed bin, but the scoops can become detached or most are able to stretch to a neigh­bor­ing bin, mak­ing the risk of cross-con­t­a­m­i­na­tion far too likely.
6. Store all of your bulk bin finds in a sealed con­tain­er, ide­al­ly glass, in a dark, cool place (unless oth­er­wise spec­i­fied). This gives the con­tents the best chance of stay­ing fresh as long as possible.
7. Label those con­tain­ers! Dis­in­te­grat­ing ball jar labels or reusable labels allow you to remem­ber what you bought AND when you bought it.
8. As stat­ed in #7, writ­ing down the date of pur­chase is impor­tant in know­ing how long the item will stay fresh. The shelf life varies tremen­dous­ly depend­ing on the type of food. Check out this fab­u­lous resource for a lit­tle bit more info on how to store all of your bulk bin bounty!