Our local restaurant supply store here on the southern coast of Oregon has been the best source of food preps for us. We have purchased all a wide variety of beans (pintos, red, kidney, black, lentils, white/navy, etc) rice, popcorn (for grinding into cornmeal), powdered milk, spices in bulk, cocoa, noodles, baking soda, baking powder, oats, cooking oils, sauce mixes, powdered chedder cheese, dehydrated potatoes (mashed, scalloped, augrautin, hashbrowns).....you name it, they got it. And, the best deal is that we have found them to be very competitive and actually beating out Costco prices, not only in price but selection. Not to mention local - we drive 2.5 hours to get to a Costco. If you arent sure how to find the one in your area phone a local restaurant owner/operator and find out where they purchase there bulk suppies. Here in our area they are called United Grocers, or Cash n Carry......last but not lease we also purchased bulk candy, cleaning suppies, hygeine products, etc...

-- IMA GETIT (GettemWhileYaCan@gotmine.com), October 07, 1999

Answers

They are called Sysco here. I had the opportunity to go to one their employee sales and boy what a bargain. This sale is the one thing that got my preps started. The Sysco warehouse is hugh and it is almost impossible to imagine that there will be nothing left in a matter of a few days. I am sure government will take over these type of warehouses the moment the panic begins.

-- Carol (glear@usa.net), October 07, 1999.

Ima, thank you SO much for this suggestion! I have needed some of these very items and figured I'd have to get them with the added cost of shipping and handling. Here I go to the Yellow Pages on my lunch hour!! :-)

-- Elaine Seavey (Gods1sheep@aol.com), October 07, 1999.

That's a good source for 1-gallon cans of jelled alcohol. Restaurants don't buy those little cans - way too expensive. Buy one set of cans, and then buy the gallons. Spoon it out of the gallon into the little ones to burn it.

-- bw (home@puget.sound), October 07, 1999.

In southern CA, they are called Smart&Final. S&F's carry neat prep items that Costco doesn't such as a box of 500 mayo packets. Their prices are competitive but you have to pay attention when comparing items that both stores carry because of different suppliers, packaging and weights. If you have a business account you can buy goods tax-free (of course you must pay tax on personal use items;)).

-- ratt (round@nd.round), October 07, 1999.

www.honeyvillgrain.com in Salt Lake City and Los Angeles.

50LBS Cream of Wheat only $15. You want it, they got it!

-- freddie (freddie@thefreeloader.com), October 08, 1999.

Got more preps to do? Need to stretch your dollars? Think about getting together with other people and purchasing needed preps as a group. You might be able to get wholesale prices or better discounts.

I started a thread for this and listed some things that I'd like to get. Just add your own list of things to this thread and we'll try to figure things out.

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=001X JH

Sincerely,
Stan Faryna

Got 14 days of preps? If not, get started now. Click here.

Click here and check out the TB2000 preparation forum.

-- Stan Faryna (faryna@groupmail.com), October 08, 1999.