For those not familiar with Azure Standard, it’s basically a company that sells organic/natural products, mostly in bulk. They have “drop locations” and your order is delivered to a drop location via 18 wheeler once a month. When we place our order, we never the week it will be delivered but not the day.
You can see that I have 19 days, 6 hours and 37 minutes left to order for the October delivery and my order will be delivered sometime the week of October 15. That’s all I know. Once the cut off date happens, it’s usually a couple of days before we get the exact time for our drop. Those trucks are amazingly exact with their delivery times. This morning our delivery was scheduled for 9 a.m. We got to the drop location about 8:50 and he had just finished backing in.
When I started ordering from Azure a couple of years ago, the drop off location was at a chiropractor’s parking lot and we had plenty of room but as the group grew and grew . . and grew, it got crowded and wasn’t working so well. Our coordinator talked about changing the drop location to her house. I was a bit apprehensive because we had grown to a rather large group. She had the truck driver come out and look and I think he asked her to trim a few trees. It’s the perfect drop location! She lives out in the country but not too far out, has a big circle drive in the front, parking on the side and in the back. On one side, she has a little storage building so if anyone can’t get there to pick up their order, she puts it in that building. There’s a place where the 18 wheeler can make a big loop to turn around if it’s dry but if the ground is wet, he just backs in to her side driveway. Glad he can back that big truck up . . I wouldn’t want to try it. There are often 40+ vehicles there picking up their orders.
Anyway, today was the first time in over two years of ordering that it was chilly and raining. We’ve had pickups when it was snowing or there was snow on the ground. I don’t usually order in December, January or February because I don’t want to deal with snow and ice. If we plan to go to town and the weather is bad, we just wait for a better day but on those Azure pickup days, we really need to get our order picked up on time.
Today I was standing out in the damp, kinda shivering and I almost let myself wish it was warmer . . then I remembered summer and decided I’d be thankful for the drizzly rain and cool breeze!
I had a fairly small order today:
- 25 pounds baby lima beans (dry)
- 25 pounds cannellini beans (dry)
- 2 cases (24 cans total) organic unsweetened coconut cream
- 5 pounds Celtic light gray sea salt crystals
- 1 pound cumin powder
- 1 pound bentonite clay
When I order grains, sometimes there are four or more 50 pound bags.
I don’t compare prices, and there’s an 8.25% charge added onto everything from Azure for delivery charges. It may be different, depending on your location.
Azure is sometimes way more but for organic, I’m willing to pay more. Here are a couple of comparisons.
Baby lima beans are $1.79 per pound and with the transport charges, they’re $1.94 per pound. Walmart hasn’t had baby lima beans (dry) in ages. They do have the large lima beans and they’re $1.98 per pound so the baby limas at Azure are a tad less expensive but I do like the baby lima beans so that’s a good deal.
Cannellini beans are $3.07 per pound, including transport charges . At Walmart, one pound of cannellini beans costs $2.60 per pound. They do not have them in stock and they have to be ordered but I have free shipping so the beans at Walmart are less.
Organic unsweetened coconut cream, 13.5 oz. can, including transport charges at Azure is $3.12 . At Walmart, 13.66 oz cans of unsweetened coconut cream is $4.68. Nice savings there. I use a can with each pint jar when I cook the Green Tomato Curry
The Celtic light gray sea salt was $24.17 including transport costs, for 5 pounds. It’s hard to even find that anywhere else right now.
One pound of ground cumin at Azure is $8.77 including the transport cost. Vita-cost has one pound of ground cumin for $8.79.
There are things that are way more at Azure. I don’t usually buy those. I don’t buy much flour but when I do, I like the Central Milling Artisan Craft flour. A 50 pound bag at Azure is $61.42 including transport charges. I can often buy King Arthur’s bread flour at Walmart in 5 pound bags for $5.58 per bag. That’s $55.80 for 50 pounds. When I’m in Walmart and they have the King Arthur bread flour, I will pick up a bag, but our Walmart rarely has the KA bread flour.
I will place an order for pickup in October and then probably won’t order again til March unless I’m desperate for something, which probably isn’t going to happen.
Stephanie says
Thank you so much for sharing this! And for adding in the cost differences. I had been going back and forth over that flour, I usually use King Arthur bread flour as well but I moved to a rural area and it’s harder to get a hold of. The coconut cream I will be ordering for sure. My pick up is at a farm that I get my raw milk from so lots of space thank goodness. Excited for the 5lb blocks of cheese since I can’t get raw milk cheese where I am. Going to look up the salt you mentioned, never heard of it before. I’m the same, no driving in the ice unless absolutely have too, so trying to get stocked up for winter.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
I love the raw pepper jack cheese. That’s one thing I need to add to my order for next month so we don’t run out during the winter months. I usually get a 5 pound block every other month but I’ll order two next month.
Cheryl says
I wanted to pick up a few cans (15oz) of Lima beans @ the store the other day, $2.15 . They didn’t have dried.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
It’s all so random. One time I go to the store and I’ll see plenty of something. Then the next two or three times I go, that item is nowhere to be found. It’s like the breakfast sausage at Aldi. They haven’t had any in almost two months but Walmart has plenty of breakfast sausage – just way more expensive. I ended up buying ground pork and made sausage this morning.