I love a pretty pantry. Not the kind where you put overpackaged food in baskets to hide the loud branding and stuff your basics in plastic containers.
I don’t want to hide my food. I want my food to wave at me from it’s gorgeous glass home, inspiring me to batch something up.
This is why I love buying in bulk. I take my cloth bags to the bulk store, fill them up, then bring them home and fill my jars. Easy, pretty and neat.
These are my favorite stores near the Green Cottage where I go get my refills.
Mother’s Markets
Mother’s Markets is a chain of health food stores in Orange County. While their selection is small and sometimes hidden away, they have things like peanut butter and nutritional yeast that can be difficult to find in bulk in other places.
Also, they tare containers! And they’re happy to do it.
Sprouts
Fun tip about Sprouts, they don’t all carry the same items. Each one is unique, so when you go to a different area and see a Sprouts, stop in to check out their bulk selection.
Sprous has the best tea and organic spices in bulk. Seriously, if you take nothing from this article, at least buy your spices in bulk. It is WAY less expensive. Then you can take all the money you save and buy a nice spice rack.
Winco
My favorite bulk store is Winco. Not only is it the least expensive, but it has the widest selection. I can get nuts like walnuts and almonds for $5 a pound.
There’s every kind of pasta, sugar, bean, rice, grain and flour. Plus you can find other staples, such as baking soda, salt, bread crumbs, cocoa and my favorite, chocolate chips.
Other bulk stores have things like sugar, but only at Winco can I find items such as powdered and brown sugar. It’s the variety in their selection that ensures I can find things here that I can’t find anywhere else.
They even have just-add-water-mixes, like brownie mix, soup mix, muffin mix, pancake mix, etc. I prefer to make these things from scratch with fresh ingredients, but the ones I’ve tried are decent.
They won’t tare your containers though. I’ve asked and written a letter to corporate.
Be warned, their plastic bags are whisper thin and they will rip on you. I’ve seen it happen on the conveyor belt in the checkout. Rice EVERYWHERE. Don’t be that person, bring your own bags and you’ll be all set.
Bring Your Own Long Beach
Bring Your Own Long Beach is the place to get things like cleaning supplies, personal care, and other household products in bulk.
You can refill your own containers or borrow a jar.
You can go to a pop up shop or go to their shop at Algalita.
