So, my wife comes home, she found this place called "Swans" - it's kind of an island of misfit toys from the supermarket - closeouts, scratch and dents. Well, I went there for the first time with her last night and there was this glorious assortment of "longer life" products - meals in a pouch stuff, very much like MRE's, plus ample canned goods - and the prices were insanely low (a 32 oz can of pork and beans was $0.79). In addition, they had ample paper goods, foils, and all that.

Well, of course, I got to thinking about how well this would go toward creating a budget emergency pantry, and after some noodling with the calculator and a review of the prices, it looks like I can create an emergency pantry of the brands and foods we like and use for about $600 - that's a 3 month pantry, which is pretty darn incredible.

Anyone else have a place like that near them? I never knew this place was around, yet I've driven by it scores of times.

Just to check, did you mean Schwans ? Asking just because that is a fairly popular food delivery company here in the midwest, somewhat similar to Omaha Steaks. (minus all the overly charge meat).

Nope. Swanns.

http://www.nexport.com/company.cfm?company=442628_SWANNS_PANTRY_GROCERS_RETAIL_QUAKERTOWN_PA

Schwans sundae cones rule! my favorite.

Lee

Dang, Q-town is a good hour one way from here.

Might be worth a trip once in a while, if I ever had another reason to visit the area.

Schwans is good, but not very economical.

I have several places I go for scratch & dent, surplus, and the like. I try to keep my pantry loaded for at least a 4 month haul for food. Canned meats are the most expensive items to keep stock in, so they are usually my first target at the discount marts. I seldom pay more than 50 cents a can for name brand tuna.

Supermarket chains in the UK actually have product lines, which are referred to as Loss Leaders . They actually market and sell them at below wholesale prices to entice customers into the store. Once they get the customers into the store then the rip offs and the supermarket profits can begin.

One of the major supermarkets we have in the UK has a Tag line 'Helping you spend less every day' and 'Every little helps', which is obviously ridiculous from the standpoint of the supermarket chain.

Identify the national supermarket chain loss leaders (which may vary from week to week etc) for each supermarket chain and you can potentially save lots of money on those lines, even if those lines were purchased from a wholesale source. You can get the rest from Wholesale sources. Many Wholesalers will normally require you to open up a business account but many may operate a day account with minimum spend policy. i.e. you have to spend a minimum of $100-200. This can be a good way to save cash (i.e. 30-40% retail mark tup) when purchasing long life tinned goods for the stock pile. (A visit to the wholesaler will also help you identify the supermarket chain loss leaders)

Fresh produce is then best bought from locally based retailers, town and farmers markets, where substantial savings can be made over national supermarket chain fresh produce.

Supermarket chains use a lot of psychology in the way their stores are designed and laid out. Get to know the rules of sales and marketing psychology the supermarkets employ and substantial savings can be made.

Never go shopping when hungry and always have prepared list after doing a little research (comparative costing from other sources i.e. a comparison database on a Palm handheld for example)

Internet shopping from national supermarket chains can be useful despite the carriage charges. It allows you to shop with much less psychological pressure and the rolling bill can be very useful to keep within budget.

Most of the time the delivery charges can be recouped anyway. On most occasions the supermarket will not be able to completely fulfill the Internet shopping list. Many supermarket Internet retailers will drop the delivery charges if you complain if any of the ordered lines are missing. Plus of course you have saved time and effort and annoyance and the cost of the petrol and mileage depreciation on your vehicle.

Sounds to me like Swanns has fallen into some earthquake provisions that out-lasted the demand of the current season, or seasons past - are there any terribly short expirations on this stuff? Usually vendors stock up their channels to supply folks post-disaster, or some folks pre-disaster too, and when the storms don't appear the inventory remains unsold. You can see it also in the price of MREs - pricey in June-July, but prices begin to bottom out in November-December.

We don't usually see this shadow effect in the Pacific Northwest since we're no where near hurricane territory, but one outlet in particular carries alot of remaindered inventory, that's Cash n Carry. Some good deals there, but mostly if another retailer hasn't been able to move enough of something, they sell it to Cash n Carry, and they pass on the savings to customers (Cash n Carry also carries non-remaindered food though). Remaindered books, remaindered food, same principle.

Cash 'n' Carry is also a restaurant supply house. You can get larger sizes for less total cost, IF you think you can maintain refrigeration, and IF you have enough family to eat it fast enough.

They also tend to have high-quality cookware that can be useful, but it's almost never on sale.

Also don't forget your local food co-ops. I just joined one for $6/year.

Sue

I have the problem of using up regular sizes before they go bad. I'd love to be able to buy smaller cans in bulk, more of a selection than sams club carries.