Bulk almonds prices? [Food/Vendor]

2010 Aug 21
Where can one get raw almonds at the cheapest price? Ethnic stores? Bulk barn?

2010 Aug 21
Costco, but I'm not sure of their price as of late.

2010 Aug 21
Yeah, but you need a membership card to go there. Anywhere else?

2010 Aug 21
True. I find the nut prices at Bulk Barn pretty steep.

Perhaps Mid East Food Centre on St Laurent and Belfast has good prices on bulk almonds?

Other possibilities- two ethic food stores that sell all kinds of nuts bulk: Shiraz Grocery store on Someset (near the pita bakery)

Alpha foods on Main st across from St Paul University.

I'm not sure how good their prices are- they did have good selection and fresh product. Perhaps you could strike a deal depending on how much you were looking at purchasing.


2010 Aug 21
That's funny... I was thinking of Mid East as well... I'm going to call them up to find out.

2010 Aug 21
Just called them up. Was told it's $ 4.49 a kilo! That's really cheap.... hopefully that wasn't an error and the price isn't per pound.

2010 Aug 21
I got some at Tannis trading on Catherine street a while ago. Can not remember the price but sure it was good.

2010 Aug 21
wow- yes, if that is the case, it's really cheap.

2010 Aug 21
A side note on Bulk Barn's prices. They are definitely not cheap and the very good reason is that there is no volume discount. Costco forces you to buy vast quantities of a product for you to realize a savings, whereas at Bulk Barn you have the option of buying just a few grams if you like. Bulk Barn has to charge more by necessity. The benefit to the consumer is that you can buy just a small sample of something or just enough for one recipe.

2010 Aug 21
Bulk barn can be milked, you just have to do it wisely. They post $3 off coupons for purchases over $10 once in a while. Coincidentally that offer is on now: www.bulkbarn.ca If you're lucky, the item(s) you're after may be on sale at the same time (the coupon stacks with sale prices). The only restrictions on the coupon are: 1 per visit, not applicable with the 10% student/ seniors discount given on Wednesdays. 1 per visit can be interpreted more or less rigidly, depends who is working cash. Most staff aren't paid enough to care so they won't give a crap if you make 5 separate purchases to exploit the coupons. As long as the manager isn't working cash/ hanging around it's easy to milk. Simply print off as many coupons as you will need and make as many separate $10 purchases as necessary (bring a calculator and use the scales to figure out exactly how much weight needed to just hit the threshold). If you're slightly under $10 when you get to the cash just ask them to suspend the transaction while you go grab enough to bring it above $10. Natural almonds are $3.79/lb this week, $.84 per 100 grams. Buy 2.64 lbs or 1198 grams to get a $10 value, use the coupon to bring it down to $7, bringing the cost to $2.65/ lb or $.59/ 100 grams.
They also have 25% off all raisins, with the coupon used efficiently you could bring them to 52.5% of their normal price, which I suspect would be difficult to top.

2010 Aug 22
Well, if there are other good grocery stores with cheap stuff, I'd like to find out what they are. I did a search on this forum, but didn't come up with anything.

2011 Jun 14
Bump!

Looking for cheap almonds. Any updates to this thread?

2011 Jun 15
You could try Nasa Food Centre on Somerset, Al Jazeerah on Wellington, Al-Kalaa Mini Market on Kirkwood or Sultan Supermarket at Bank and Hunt Club.


2011 Jun 16
That 4.49/kg price above (from Aug 2010) is super cheap and wondering if that was in the shell.

I regularly buy raw almonds (no shell). My current go-to places are Herb & Spice and Market Organics. Both in the 15.00/kg range - and really great quality (i.e. nice meat & plump).

I bought a kilogram bag earlier this year at Costco for 8.99, but they weren't as fresh. I could see their puny size and (perhaps) dryness through the bag but still went for it...lured by the deal. No deal.
But I still ate them of course. :)

I'll check the above-mentioned places, but if anyone finds a better price on quality almonds, please post. Thanks.


2011 Jun 16
I like Nutsonline.com

not sure if they are the cheapest, but they seem to have extremely fresh nuts.
everyone who I gave some of the nuts I ordered as a gift now buys them there.

Where can I find Marcona spanish Almonds? nutsonline has them for $13.49 lb is that good.
I was told by someone at the Whalesbone shop (where they serve lunch) that Herb and Spice sold them....and they didn't have them at all.
(Whalesbone sells some but $10 for 100g in a "fancy jar"??).

Raw almonds in shell $3.19 a lb from nuts online (shipping would add around $1.50 or so).
Raw almonds no shell are $6.99 a lb

2014 May 29
Anyone who shops at bulk barn isn't checking prices. Even the candy is overpriced. You can get the same treats at 1/3 the price at Walmart.


2014 May 29
You can't beat Bulk Barn for those times when you want to buy a single almond. :-)

2014 May 29
A single almond that's been touched by other customers most likely . . .

Well I looked for almonds today on Somerset and found nada.

A small bag of almonds at Costco is now $20.

Maybe I should plant some almond trees. The stuff has become gold.

2014 May 30
I found a place online that claims to be direct from the almond farmers in California.

www.justalmonds.com/

Wikipedia says environmental problems (drought) in California have caused a worldwide shortage in 2013, 2014:

en.wikipedia.org

www.modbee.com

I wonder if I can still get them from the middle east at $5/kg (indicated above) . . . not hopeful.


2014 May 30
To be fair, the 'small' Costco bag is three pounds, 1.36kg. Which works out to under $15 per kilogram, under $7 a pound. You won't go below that unless you buy more than 100 pounds at JustAlmonds. Add the cheapest shipping for those 100 pounds and you get $634US, which is $688CAD right now (that's assuming you don't get charged exchange fees, and doesn't count the duty you'll be charged on that $688 shipment).

Costco wins. Unless you want bragging rights on ordering $700 in almonds at once.

I'd check the Middle Eastern market on St Laurent first, they might actually do better, you never know.

2014 May 30
Yeah, Costco wins. Let us know what you find at Middle Eastern.

---------------------------

Found another place in Canada with free shipping over $99, but Costco still wins.

www.yupik.ca

2014 May 30
Costco wins for PRICE. TASTE, however, is something else entirely.

For example, the cheap plastic tubs of Chinese cashews at Loblaws are far superior to the Bulk Barn cashews that end up being about twice the price. A bit less salt, but they taste a bit stale. Maybe a bit of a fry up would help them. I'll have to try that.

Still ...

2014 May 30
There is nothing worse than rancid nuts :-)

In France peanuts are a novelty item, but they are growing them in some places and vacuum packing them. And they are good ! Better than the peanuts here, most of which I now realize are partially rancid.


2014 May 30
According to this pdf, an acre of almond trees yields an income of $17,000, and that was at 2010 prices.

I believe there are almond trees that will grow in zone 5.

www.almondboard.com