By Steve Davies,
Healthy Planet Columnist
Okay, so this time I went to the other two grocery stores in the area, both are part of much larger chains and unfortunately, they were about the same as the two local grocery stores. One of the two did have peanut butter and coffee but, now that I think about it, the two local grocery stores probably have coffee as well. I didn’t think to go down the coffee aisle.
That’s when I then decided to go to our local health food store and it was there where I actually found quite a bit more in bulk. They had nuts, some dry goods, along with quite a variety of spices and herbs. Thinking back to when I was much, much younger, I kind of remember another local health food store where you could buy items like grains, spices and herbs.
So, all this walking around in the grocery stores has got me thinking what else could come in bulk? Well, one of the first things off the top of my head would be other dry goods like granola, oats, rice, beans and pasta. What about baking items like baking powder and baking soda, sugar and flour. or even oats. If we stretch it out further, what about pancake mix, mash potatoes and perhaps even cereal. So, there are plenty of things that could come in bulk if grocery stores choose to do that.
Now I will say that if you think about it, grocery stores do have a bulk area that when I started all this, I didn’t think about it and that’s fruits and vegetables. That said, they could also take it a step further, by not carrying all the fruits and vegetables that come in plastic bags like lettuce. For me, I solve that by going to our local market where all the fruits and vegetables can be purchased individually.
To finish this off, I’ve decided I’m going to ask each of the grocery stores why they don’t carry any food in bulk. If we don’t ask about them, they certainly won’t sell them. They need to know there’s a demand for these items. So again, stay tuned.
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