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Bulk food stores, or even bulk aisles, are amazing ways to save money and eliminate unnecessary packaging. The key to this is to bring your own reusable tote bags. If the weight of your bag is significant enough to effect the price, make sure to write the weight of the bag ON your bag, so the cashier can quickly and easily tare the weight off of the final price.

This is KEY to reducing waste. Simply buying bulk food to use one of the store’s thin plastic bags is not zero waste, and it is not sustainable. At that rate, it’s better to buy something packaged in compostable cardboard.

Some stores may offer compostable or biodegradable bags to use. To this I say, please only use them in an emergency, and only if your community is actually able to compost those materials, unless they can be composted in home composters– but in my experience, I have never found a ‘compostable’ plastic bag that I could compost in my backyard.

Here is a list I’ve compiled of stores around the U.S. that offer a variety of food in bulk:

Alabama

Alaska

Arizona

Arkansas

California

Colorado

Connecticut

Delaware

Florida

Georgia

Hawaii

Idaho

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine

Maryland/ Washington D.C.

Massachusetts

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi

Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

Nevada

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New Mexico

New York

North Carolina

North Dakota

Ohio

Oklahoma

Oregon

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

South Carolina

South Dakota

Tennessee

Texas

Utah

Vermont

Virginia

Washington

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Wyoming