Buying food wholesale

Hi

I really want to save money on buying food, especially stuff like meat and stuff. I am wondering about a group buy and also where I can buy food at wholesale prices… Mostly interested in eggs, meat, and stuff like that. Mainly because it looks like wholesale food price isn’t really that bad but retail they’re price gouging like crazy.

Would anyone here be interested in a group buy here?

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I still recommend picking up a different job that pays better so you can save up for your business dreams and afford healthy food.

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So you’re trying to figure out where to buy pigs and chickens basically?

Or figure out how to not pay exorbitant prices for it… Carrefour sells pork at about 30-40nt per 100g, regardless of the cut. Chicken leg quarter if you can find it is like almost 50 each. I have no idea how restaurants make money.

They don’t. Even ‘star’ restaurants have almost no profit, they have to spend most in upkeep of the restaurant and staff. Restaurants are very lucky if they make 3-6% profit after taxes.
What they need is investors that poor in money, than get acquired by a larger group that’s listed on the stock market. Or trying to get an IPO. ‘Star’ chefs make money getting a large salary and other incentives, becoming a celebrity, publishing books etc.

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It’s only going to get worse.

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Well according to Explant wholesale food price isn’t changing that much, it’s retail establishments price gouging…

Whats wrong with group buys? Its common as all hell in taiwan. No reason a forumosa group buying group cant work any different than the thousands of companies, schools, government offices etc doing this exact same thing. We just started supplying a bra company for their group buy for pete sakes.

Taipei is perfect for this kind of thing :slight_smile:

It might even be an idea to have some of us farmers, or those with farmer family members, send bulk lots up to Taipei (or anywhere) and people can save money plus know the source.

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Probably closest to wholesale markets is place like Bin Jiang Market in Taipei. The businesses go there to buy and they do sell to your average customer. Prices at these places are cheaper than supermarkets. But I don’t know if that is what counts as wholesale

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What is your strategy at the moment? Do you just pay full price or are there places you go?

Right now I just pay retail at various supermarkets or traditional market…

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Costco

I see. I think A-mart has some cheaper frozen meat in bulk packages. I generally get mine at the supermarket when they discount it, and then freeze it. The discounts only bring the meat/fish back to around prices I would pay in my home country (which is already expensive). I’d love to buy lamb, but don’t want to have to take out a bank loan in order to do so :frowning:

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Thing is, there’s wholesale price and I’d like to find out what the min quantity is… the problem is right now the various neighborhood markets (PX mart and small Carrefour) don’t have anything on discount for a while. Actually Carrefour shelves have been really bare lately for some reason.

Costco is only good for dairy stuff, not so much for pork.

Costco also sucks for eggs, their eggs are double the price of most places.

You’re unlikely to find one place that has the best prices for everything

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Exactly!

This is at the core of what groups buys mean actually. If you person wants 10 thousand products at their finger tips all the time at which moments notice, prepare to pay a premium for those services. This is well known and the world standard. I doubt if anyone argues against this logic. Just the margins…

Here is how group buys work, for those interested.

A person scouts out DIRECT sources for a product, or carious products. In this thread lets say rs @Taiwan_Luthiers

He finds the sources of eggs, lamb (in taiwan this is goat, not lamb/mutton), pumpkins, mangoes or whatever he wishes to offer his time up for community benefit. He calls 50 different companies, farmers, suppliers or whatever and asks directly, without creating a big long backstory that companies dont have time, nor energy, to listen to each phone call.

He will ask them:
MOQ
Price based on his predicted groups orders
Delivery dates they already have to his area
And payment terms

Once all these basic facts are known, make apost to the group. Be it here, facebook line or board. Mention these facts and lead times. It is obviously more fair to pay te organizer first as they assume all the burden. Full refund if supplier has issues. Thats standard operating procedure!

So check this out. If you buy from super inflated markets such as PX mart 711 etc expect their commision to be 50% ish. Plus shelving fees reugistration fees and all that bullshit they gouge suppliers with. If you buy from more “fair trade aligned morals” type of places like Nong Hway (farmers association supernarkets), local markets etc. Expect no fees and early roughly 20% commision because they deal with less corparate douche bags and/or middlemen.

In the sense the group order person volunteering is the middle man. In small groups, their benefit is mostly the wholesale price of 20~40% cheaper than.retail. thatz everyones benefit. Big groups thy can buy cheaper due to scale and if say its 50% off retail its often normal(and fair!) To pay 40% and the organizer gets 10% off the top as it becomes time consuming when scaled up.

One needs to ACTUALLY understand, as the sourcing person, companies are really fucking busy. And in taiwan most dont even want to make sales ironically. This is because they want brass tacks. They dont give 2 fucks about your buisnes your familys health problems your kids school schedules etc. Dont annoy them with such dumb shit. Times , prices, product types and quantities. Thats it. Dont talk their ears off, it is counter productive. Thats what friend and family are for. Or social media. Not business.

This stuff is actually quite simple and done everywhere already. So it should be EXTREMELY easy to do the most basic of organizing amongst a group and save the quarter to a half of some of your grocery bill. The fact most people are too lazy explains exactly why food is being inflated for mostly little reason, unchecked.

Group buys are excellent. The more people that join, the better the buying power. There are so many people here from taipei that should be an incredibly easy start!

Even if its not cor money, knowing the source us infinitely better than say that wholesale scam costco runs.

Ps. Sorry the rains have messed up my phone. Things like i/o, s/z and others are interchanging and cant be corrected. Read the meaning, not the typos, im not an english teacher :slight_smile:

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Whole pigs, chickens and goats can be bought easily in taiwan and butchers are everywhere :wink:

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No Fucking Way.

I don’t think it’s cheap at all, but you can get some stuff you can’t in other supermarkets. However the stuff I used to buy (salami and cheese) is gone, or better to say substituted by the sliced version, much worse of a deal too.

I like the idea of group buying. In Europe is not super common but not unheard of. If it can be directly from farmers, even better. However I’d say I’ve seen farmer to consumer prices that were not different from those at the supermarket…

I don’t think I can hold a pig while I look for a butcher to kill it… and if a pig gets loose, they are a huge ecological disaster.

Plus I’m pretty sure my landlord will have issues with pig crap everywhere…

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