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Organizing a Group Buy of Flour

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Re: Organizing a Group Buy of Flour

#111

Post by dceddia »

awinder wrote: post #51
pavelmark wrote: post #25

Haven't had too many problems by hunting around, using local retailers, and asking at bakeries. Might help? https://helpatmyhome.com/where-to-buy-flour-online/

Thank you for this, I put in an order with lindley like a week and a half ago and they’re swamped. Hoping it pans out but will definitely hedge with one of these others if things go south.

We put in an order with them a couple weeks ago (Monday 3/30), we didn't hear anything at all for about 2 solid weeks, and then got a shipping notification on Friday 4/10. It was shipped overnight and arrived Saturday 4/11. Hang in there!

Re: Organizing a Group Buy of Flour

#112

Post by jimmaswell »

baybal2 wrote: post #63
greedo wrote: post #10

Our grocery chain has been buying rice and flour in bulk from restaurant supply houses and repackaging them in 1lb bags. Pretty agile if you ask me.

I think big supermarkers are making things worse at the moment. It was very hard to get basic supplies and food when all small shops were ordered to close, and only big supermarkets were kept open, and supplied by organised convoys. This appears to be rational at first, but it only led to people all rushing to those few supermarkets the moment the convoy arrives, and them being emptied clean by first 50 something peo…

Where have small grocery stores been ordered to close while large ones remained?

Re: Organizing a Group Buy of Flour

#114

Post by mattrp »

ardy42 wrote: post #101
greedo wrote: post #10

Our grocery chain has been buying rice and flour in bulk from restaurant supply houses and repackaging them in 1lb bags. Pretty agile if you ask me.

> Our grocery chain has been buying rice and flour in bulk from restaurant supply houses and repackaging them in 1lb bags. Pretty agile if you ask me. I haven't seen that yet, but at least one grocery chain in my area was offering 25 lb bags of flour for sale about a month ago (or maybe they were 40-50 lb bags). Haven't been back since to that store since to see if they're still doing it (been slowly rotating through…

We just finished our 25lb bag from the Ebola panic buying days... make sure before you buy a ton of flour you know what you’re going to do with it. Bread isn’t very good without yeast (good luck finding that), cakes aren’t very good with all purpose flour, pasta is really hard to make without a pasta maker, etc... sorry to be a downer but I’m kind of the opinion that while some flour is good, and it’s certainly good to learn how to use it, don’t expect to transform your kitchen into your favorite bakery. Also... this is just my perspective but Walmart and sams are rocking the supply chain... with some few exceptions we’ve not had to look hard for anything we want and their home delivery process is awesome. Amazon has done a great job too... i do not miss two day shipping at all... as long as I know it’s off my to do list and into their queue I’m good.

Re: Organizing a Group Buy of Flour

#115

Post by tingletech »

djrogers wrote: post #108
dickjocke wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In North America are non-supermarkets and non-warehouses even 5% of grocery retail? I think that restaurants being allowed to sell groceries would've been cool. But I don't see how mom and pop grocers move the needle at all here.

>I think that restaurants being allowed to sell groceries would've been cool. At least 2 restaraunts in my town do this. Order online, drive around beck (sometimes with a line of cars, but never more than a 5 minute wait), and they drop your food/tp/etc in the trunk. Much better than hitting up Safeway or Costco, and not really much more expensive.

I think the pizza place at DNA lounge sells TP along with the pizza.

Re: Organizing a Group Buy of Flour

#116

Post by baybal2 »

samatman wrote: post #99
baybal2 wrote: post #67

It is surprising to me that the West has hit food security issues earlier than Asia. The food supply chain in US is much better than in Europe, and Europe is better than most of Asia. A week ago, I was very scared myself for there being a 21st century famine in Asia, but I never could've imagined how bad panic buying can hit countries even with robust food supply chains.

These aren't food security issues, these are supply chain issues. The difference is enormous, and it's far too soon to relax about famine. We'll know if that happened by about 2023.

A time when people can't eat food IS a food security issue. Do not invent other names for it.

The Irish famine has happened when UK was drowning in corn, and had the best harvest in many years.

The Bengal famine has happened in times when most regions of India had otherwise at least bearable harvests.

The Ukrainian famine has happened in times when the soviet union had bumper harvests, and was exporting megatons of grains, and other foods.

The Great Chinese Famine has happened when Mao too has tried the same trick as soviets did, except it failed on him even worse, like ten times as much.

Bangladesh 1973 famine has happened when Bangladesh was awash with humanitarian aid.

The chronic undernutrition of socially marginalised groups in 1st world countries keeps happening with governments throwing billions of cash on food stamp programs.

Re: Organizing a Group Buy of Flour

#117

Post by irrational »

My local stores are totally sold out of flour. I had to travel to a different state to pick up my daughter from college. While traveling, I stopped at a Costco for gas. On a whim I went into the store and they actually had some flour available. I purchased about 200 lbs, even though I had to pay sales tax, since I have no idea when flour will again be available in my area.

When I got home my wife asked me if they had toilet paper too. Doh!

Re: Organizing a Group Buy of Flour

#118

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

mattrp wrote: post #114
ardy42 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Our grocery chain has been buying rice and flour in bulk from restaurant supply houses and repackaging them in 1lb bags. Pretty agile if you ask me. I haven't seen that yet, but at least one grocery chain in my area was offering 25 lb bags of flour for sale about a month ago (or maybe they were 40-50 lb bags). Haven't been back since to that store since to see if they're still doing it (been slowly rotating through…

We just finished our 25lb bag from the Ebola panic buying days... make sure before you buy a ton of flour you know what you’re going to do with it. Bread isn’t very good without yeast (good luck finding that), cakes aren’t very good with all purpose flour, pasta is really hard to make without a pasta maker, etc... sorry to be a downer but I’m kind of the opinion that while some flour is good, and it’s certainly good…

Mix flour and water and sugar and in a day you'll have a culture of natural yeast going and you can keep replenishing it as needed. There are also a variety of baking powder/soda breads you can make.

I've been baking cakes since I was about 13 and I have never used anything other than AP flour. OK. I've used bread flour in a pinch, being super-careful to mix it very little because of the high protein content.

Pasta: roll it out thin and cut with a knife. It really doesn't take that much longer. I did it like this forever until I got a pasta roller/cutter.

Not trying to be contrarian, but I felt to point out that nothing here is a show stopper, it just takes a little creativity/experience.

Re: Organizing a Group Buy of Flour

#119

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

ska wrote: post #76
frosted-flakes wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Waffles are so simple. Obviously, they require a waffle iron, but apart from that I can quickly mix up a bunch of ingredients I always have at hand in a single bowl with a pour spout, using a single fork to stir it, a plastic IKEA cup for measuring ingredients (exactly 1 cup), and a 1tsp measuring spoon. I try to use "standard" dishes whenever possible because they're so much easier to clean (stack neatly in the sink…

FWIW whisks to me are basic kitchen equipment, anything but specialized. To me specialized would be something like an "avocado cutter" or a "poached egg cooker", etc. Or a waffle iron ;)

Absolutely. I'm still using the same balloon whisk I bought almost 30 years ago during my "no power tools in the kitchen" phase.

Re: Organizing a Group Buy of Flour

#120

Post by ApolloFortyNine »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #41
devchix wrote: post #12

> Webstaurant would ship a pallet of flour, 50 bags of 50lbs each, for $1,081 or $0.43/lb. > Unfortunately, between placing the order and them shipping it they ran out of stock Insanity! I'm heartened that people are still baking at home though. For comparison, retail King Arthur All-Purpose flour goes for about $3.69 for 5lbs, or $0.73/lb, so at $0.56/lb Sir Galahad flour is still a bargain. Whole wheat flour has br…

I question how many people are actually using the flour they're hoarding, and how many are just putting it in the back of the pantry because, "When the end of the world comes, you'll need flour!" It's very irritating for those of us who actually bake on a regular basis and resisted the temptation to hoard for hoarding's sake.

I present to you this commenter, who just bought 200 lbs of flour.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22885192

Hoarders suck, especially super hoarders like this.

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