I can’t allow myself access to a bulk food store on any sort of a regular basis. It’s too dangerous. I say this because I know how susceptible I am to junk food. And to stockpiling. And to stockpiling junk food.
Let’s be honest, at least a solid third of a bulk food store is candy. Big barrels full of candy and chocolate and salty treats. It’s almost obscene. Almost. They seem to carry every candy beloved by mankind, but additionally, always seem to pull out a surprise—something that forces you to say out loud, “Ooooo, that looks good!!!” while scooping a bowlful into a plastic bag before your Good Sense is able to even finish a sentence.
I enjoy the dabbling that I’m able to do in the treat section of a bulk store. A little bit of this, a little bit of that, committing to nothing and keeping all of my avenues open. All of our old favourites seem to whisper reminders to us of our various childhood indiscretions.
My husband and I have stipulations about what snack we choose (separately, obviously!) to sample during the car ride home from the store. We try to limit ourselves by stating that whatever we each get can only last us for the time it takes us to drive home. Luckily for us, we live several miles away from the closest bulk store and there’s often traffic. Still, by the time we pull up in front of our house, we’re both dangerously close to having stomach aches. And sometimes our teeth hurt.
There ARE items other than candy available at the bulk store and, contrary to the picture I’ve just painted, my main reason for a trip is for the spices. Seriously. I buy all of my spices at the bulk store and completely refresh my stash once a year. Keep the bottles, dump the contents, fill with the fresh stuff. This system keeps the cost ultra low and guarantees that the spices I use to cook with will actually add flavours that I can distinguish. I know that bulk food store spices are frowned upon in certain circles but since I’ve never been more than a visitor to those sorts of circles, that bit of food elitism doesn’t affect me in the least.
The Spice Trip, as we lovingly refer to it, has its groundwork laid each year in late Fall. I go through the cupboard that holds my assortment of matching tiny spice jars, and I make a list of the spices that I currently own AND can see myself continuing with for the coming year. Not everything makes the list. I then go through my baking supplies with an eye towards the coming holiday season that is just over the horizon, and finally, I round out my shopping list with any other bulk-y items that come to mind. It’s usually mid November when I head over the store, list clutched in hand, having made stern promises of self-discipline. Sometimes in writing.
I adhere strictly to the list until I spy things that I forgot I was pining for. This is the point at which we shake off the shackles of clinging to a list and wander willy-nilly around the store pointing and exclaiming and foraging.
I find that more questions seem to surface the longer we meander through the bulk food store. Questions like who buys bulk breakfast cereal? Who buys the tea bags? Is pasta really cheaper in bulk? Is there really someone out there who goes to the bulk store specifically to buy dog food? And, now that my parents have passed on, who buys the dried prunes?
By the time I’ve worked my way through the store a couple of times and have fulfilled the demands of my list, I’ll make my way to the checkout, grateful that the basket has wheels on it. I seem to always get a raised eyebrow from the check-out person—after all, I’ve just filled up 25+ tiny bags full of every type of spice needed to cook middle-class meals for a year and enough bags of random snacks to suggest that I’m setting up my own convenience store. Sometimes I explain to the clerk that I do this whole restocking thing once a year, and sometimes I just pretend that this is all so normal that it’s too boring to even talk about.
By the time we escape from the store with our bounty, we have somehow always spent more than I thought we would. We race to the car, rifle through the bag for our car treats, and head home content with our efforts. From the back seat wafts the heady aroma of all of those little bags of spice, with their promises of future meals to be enjoyed!
Bulk food stores take their place in our respected food retailers pyramid closer to the bottom than they do to the top, but their place is secured because of their variety and because there’s always that one recipe you want to try that calls for some spice that you don’t keep stocked in your pantry. Filled with visions of culinary brilliance, a stop in at the bulk food store allows you to buy a small amount of that particular seasoning and yet not leave you looking guiltily at a nearly full jar of it in your cupboard for the next decade.
And if that’s the reason that you are heading over to the bulk store this weekend—to try out some exotic dish to impress your family with—you might also pick up some of those chocolate covered blueberries at the same time, just in case your Food Network vibes aren’t quite as honed in as your imagination thinks, and the night’s experimental dinner falls flat. What could be more consoling than an evening on the couch snacking on several handfuls of ‘choco-blues’ paired with a nice cocktail?
