Buying in Bulk

Back to the cracker barrel

Plain generic packaging started sweeping through U.S. food chains five years ago. The result was lower prices for many standard items, ranging from bathroom tissue to light bulbs. Now some supermarkets are going generics one better: no packaging at all. They are offering foodstuffs in bulk; buyers pour from vats or scoop out from bins the amounts they want.

At supermarkets in the Midwest and Southern California, as many as 250 items can be bought in bulk, including flour sugar, mixes for cakes and breads, pie fillings, dried beans, rice, pasta and spices. Containers for the products are very different from the cracker barrels that were found in general stores at the turn of the century. Many of the new ones have sanitized liners and clear plastic tops.

Products bought from the supermarket bins are much cheaper. Bulk buttermilk pancake mix in some stores costs 47-c- per lb., vs. 89-c- for national brand-name packages; and spaghetti is 47-c-, vs. 73-c-. The biggest savings are in spices. Oregano that costs 65-c- per oz. when packaged, or $1.79 for a small container, is only 35-c- per oz. when bought in bulk.

Loblaws, a Canadian supermarket chain, apparently first came up with the idea and introduced modern bulk buying last August. Safeway, based in Oakland, Calif, then picked up the barrels and brought them to Los Angeles in February. By the end of this year, some 60 of 180 Safeway stores in Southern California will offer foods in bulk. Ralphs, a Los Angeles food retailer, sells 150 items in ten stores. Pick-n-Pay, a division of First National Supermarkets, headquartered near Cleveland, began last December with one store that sold bulk products. Now there are 19. Says First National Spokesman Terry Kushner: "Everyone is price-conscious. It's an extraordinary way to save money." This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.