Do any of you have pantry style stores where you live, in which all of the food sold in the store is meant to be put in your pantry? There is one in my town and I save a lot of money by shopping there. They sell flour, nuts, and grains in bulk and so I save a lot of money buying big bags of my baking ingredients.
We used to, but it was more of a bulk candy store - but they did sell some other bulk basic pantry stuff too. The nice thing was, that it was in a plaza right next to a movie theater. So when we were going to go see a movie we would stop there first and buy some candy and other snacks in bulk, then sneak them into the theater. One of my favorite things to get were butter flavored popcorn jellybeans, lol. There is still a small health food store that does sell some items in bulk, and a local grocery chain - Giant Eagle - has started testing a new larger store model in some areas, which now features a bulk foods section. In fact, the Giant Eagle stores even have an olive oil bulk section, where they have giant vats of olive oil with various different seasonings that you can fill your own bottles with. There are a bunch of empty bottles and labels and corks on hand, and you pick which oils you want (or mix them in one bottle). They have stuff like Tuscan herb infused olive oil, or lemon infused olive oil, garlic olive oil, etc...
We used to have stores that were smaller versions of HEB, which is a Texas based grocer. Their HEB Pantry stores still had most groceries, but were smaller. I haven't seen a store like what you're talking about for a long time, and I don't think I've ever seen one down here in Texas. It sounds interesting, sort of like a variation of Aldi's, since that is also limited in what it sells. My actual pantry is chock full right now, so I won't be buying canned goods for a while, but I would definitely be interested in a store that sold canned goods at a discount, because I get alarmed when my supplies are low, and sometimes the prices are high when I go to replace what I've used.
I am not sure that I have seen those types of stores, but they seem like a really good idea. I was just at Giant Eagle Ohiotom, I saw some bulk food available, but I don't think they have the kind of thing you are talking about in every store. I think I heard that Giant Eagle has a Columbus< OHio Marketplace where they try out a lot of ideas, to see what will sell in their various stores. I was on a trip out of the area,,,so I went to some GE stores in Western Pa.
