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9 Bulk Stores Online: Shopping For A Waste Free Planet & Pantry Image by Sustainable Jungle #bulkstores #bestbulkgrocerystores #bulkstoresonline #onlinebulkstores #bulkshoppingonline #bestonlinebulkshopping #sustainablejungle
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9 Bulk Stores Online: Shopping For A Waste Free Planet & Pantry

Shelby Loeppky


Looking to progress your zero waste journey by really bulking up your eco-friendly efforts?

Then it’s time to start buying at bulk stores.

Thanks to a new wave of bulk stores (online and all around the world), we can order our favorite food, groceries, cleaning, pet supplies, beauty and body care products, without adding loads of plastic packaging to your shopping list. 

First, what is a bulk food store?

Well, they’re stores that sell bulk items, either in thoughtful, minimal packaging, or as loose goods you can fill up your own containers with.

Given we’re talking about bulk online shopping, the former is more common, though we certainly appreciate innovative brands offering refillable bulk goods and the like over the internet!

Naturally, the best bulk online stores are also zero waste online stores and ship (almost) everything plastic free, too.

Whether you need hand lotion, perishable foods, or restaurant-grade olive oil, you’ll find what you need and won’t have the packaging to show for it.

So what is the best store to buy in bulk?

We can’t narrow it down, so we’ll start with three.

Everything we recommend to you on Sustainable Jungle is independently researched and we ask all brands to confirm their claims. To avoid waste, we test products on an as needed basis. This post contains affiliate links. If you buy something through our links, we may earn a small commission. Learn more about why we do this here.

The Best Online Bulk Stores For Package-Free Shopping

By answering a few simple questions, Thrive Market can tailor your online grocery shopping to your specific needs, without running the risk of purchasing from companies with questionable sustainability practices. We love the extra savings—and not standing in grocery store lines!

If you are headed out shopping though, Common Good makes it possible to buy in bulk by swinging by a local wholesaler to refill, completely eliminating shipping costs and associated waste.

Speaking of keeping things local, we love to see a company like Sun & Swell supporting their local farmers, where most of their foodstuffs are sourced. 

1. Thrive Market

9 Bulk Stores Online: Shopping For A Waste Free Planet & Pantry Images by Thrive Market #bulkstores #bestbulkgrocerystores #bulkstoresonline #onlinebulkstores #bulkshoppingonline #bestonlinebulkshopping #sustainablejungle
Images by Thrive Market

Thrive Market’s Bulk Food Online Shopping 

Price Range: Varies by products and frequency

Thrive Market makes bulk food shopping online a breeze.

Whether you’re keto, vegan, paleo, or 70+ other diets and values or simply want to know what foods are sustainable, a few simple clicks and Thrive Market will tailor a selection of products from their 6000+ item range.

From that, you can custom create your box of 12–14 items from their huge selection.

Shop packaged foods, fresh foods, frozen foods, meat, zero waste vitamins and supplements, home, beauty, bath, and body. 

That includes items unique to bulk grocery stores online, such as frozen goods, sustainably sourced meat and seafood boxes, and wine.

If you think this service sounds expensive, think again. Thrive eliminates middlemen to offer everything at wholesale prices rather than retail ones. Boxes start for as little as $5!

Wondering, “Is it cheaper to shop in bulk?”

With annual plans starting for as little $5 per month and prices 25-50% lower than retail, it sure is with Thrive.

About Thrive Market

As a Certified B Corp, Thrive Market fights for healthy, sustainable food systems, and food equality.

They’ve raised almost $4 million for the cause and collected 300,000 signatures petitioning the USDA to implement online food stamps.

Every online grocery shopping membership purchased also comes with one gifted to those in need.

Between ethical sourcing, zero waste warehouses, 100% recyclable and reusable packaging, maximizing box space, and carbon-neutral ground shipping, there isn’t much Thrive hasn’t done to thoughtfully reduce their impact.


2. Common Good

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Images by Sustainable Jungle

Common Good’s Online Bulk Store

Price Range: $9–$132

One of the biggest issues with traditional cleaning supplies is the harsh chemicals that wash into waterways, Common Good’s vast selection of cleaning products is free of the pollutants plaguing our waterways.

Stock up on personal care products and non-toxic cleaning products—like dish cleaners, laundry detergents, and surface cleaners—with Common Good’s refillable glass bottles, plastic refill pouches, and 65% post-consumer recycled cardboard bulk boxes lined with an LDPE recyclable plastic liner that contains 86% less plastic than bottles.

Common Good supplies a shipping label for your return shipment of their plastic liners and refill pouches to partake in their Closed Loop program, where any plastic is washed and refilled—no need for the usual recycling.

Because their bulk goods come in sizes up to 2.5 gallons, you can treat them as wholesale sustainable products to create your own refill station.

If you don’t have the space for your own in-home refill station, they’re stocked by a number of other brick-and-mortar bulk shops. Check their refill stations around the US—which can also help you find some of the best places to buy in bulk near you!

About Common Good

A decade ago, Common Good revolutionized the world of refill cleaning products by way of reusable, refillable packaging after noticing the sheer amount of plastic founder Sacha Dunn and her family were using.

We love to see companies who source sustainably, Common Good uses corn products that are non-GMO in their ingredient list and any palm oil used in their products are RSPO-certified. 

Their centrally located warehouse helps to reduce their carbon footprint when it comes to shipping however, if you choose Route at checkout, your package is not only insured but also carbon-neutral.  


3. The Wally Shop

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Images by The Wally Shop

The Wally Shop’s Bulk Food Shopping Online

Price Range: Prices only available after sign-up

Join the #ReusablesRevolution with Wally. 

The Wally Shop—AKA the best online bulk food store—has a vision to provide everything—from food to pet supplies to beauty products—in reusable packaging.

They’ve got a range of “responsibly-made, Trader Joe’s price-competitive” bulk groceries online—dry pantry staples, baking supplies, snacks, granola, and more—and household products with plans to add more bulk goods over time. 

Simply pay a deposit for the packaging and then get it back when it’s returned with the next order. 

While you are required to sign up to shop, The Wally Shop doesn’t require a paid membership, and they nowoffering online grocery delivery across the US.

About The Wally Shop

The Wally Shop is an online bulk shopping platform that connects shoppers to their favorite brands (waste-free!) and it started in the most unexpected place: Amazon. 

While founder Tamara was working with Amazon, she became aware of the correlation between the rise of online shopping and plastic-waste. 

She wanted to provide an alternative to Amazon so that shoppers could get the same convenience, selection, and value, as the online behemoth—but do so sustainably.

Sustainability is thus the top priority, but giving back is also important for The Wally Shop. They provide free shipping to vulnerable seniors, healthcare, and emergency service workers.


4. The Good Fill

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Images by Sustainable Jungle

The Good Fill’s Bulk Shopping Online

Price Range: $1–$60

The Good Fill is one of the few bulk online stores to offer household staples that are somewhat unique in the world of shopping bulk online, like refillable stain remover, baking soda, and Epsom salt.

They also have more basic cleaners and pantry staples like laundry detergent and all-purpose cleaner, as well as a range of beauty care products like shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and body wash refills

Easily one of the best bulk stores for liquids, The Good Fill packages theirs in a BPA-free plastic pouch (with 93% less plastic than a bottle) with a pre-paid postage envelope that allows you to ship it back, so it can be sanitized and reused. 

About The Good Fill

This bulk buy store is based in Nashville, Tennessee. 

Here’s why the hairstylist-turned-owner Megan started The Good Fill:

“I want to tackle the idea that we don’t have enough time, money, convenience or resources to change the habits that consumerism has trapped us in.”

By providing sustainable alternatives to commonly used (and disposed of) products, The Good Fill allows us to think more deeply about our purchases. It brings awareness to the time, energy, resources, and individual efforts that go into each product and packaging.

Their delivery service utilizes compostable or recyclable paper bags.

If you’re in Nashville looking for bulk household essentials near you, you’ll be happy to know that most products are made locally and can be purchased from their brick-and-mortar storefront. You can even bring your own bottles.


5. Azure Standard

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Images by Azure Standard

Azure Standard’s Online Bulk Grocery Shopping

Price Range: $2–$729

Depending on where you live, you may not have a bulk grocery store near you.

We’re not all fortunate enough to have a Whole Foods or Natural Grocers round the corner. 

Fortunately, Azure Standard exists! 

With this bulk food store online, you can order nearly any food product you can imagine in bulk—grains, beans, sustainable tea, snacks, apple cider vinegar, honey, flour, oil, frozen food, preserved food, and the list goes on! 

They also offer some packaged foods and zero waste or refillable products for kitchen and bathroom staples (like soap and biodegradable baby wipes).

You can get an online grocery delivery to your door, or you can join a drop—where you’ll join other eco-conscious individuals to pick up a regular order (and minimize shipping emissions in the process).

About Azure Standard

Azure Standard essentially provides what all of us have been waiting for: “making it affordable to eat healthy”. 

While the movement to buy bulk groceries online is somewhat new (to match the demands of our plastic-free lives), this bulk supply store actually started in 1971 when the Stelzer family took their wheat and cattle ranch out of the chemical cycle on which most other farms were getting hooked. 

Azure’s core values reflect this decision, namely to inspire healthy and abundant living while embracing change. 

This also contributes to their strict product standards, which mean none of their bulk groceries contain artificial additives, preservatives, MSG, GMOs, or artificial colors or flavors.


6. Sun & Swell Foods

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Images by Sustainable Jungle

Sun & Swell Foods’ Online Bulk Food Store

Price Range: $8–$198

Sun & Swell Foods is just about the best place to buy bulk foods online.

Their online bulk grocery selection includes pantry staples (such as nuts, grains, dried fruits, baking supplies, coffee, tea, nut butter, coconut oil, and more) and pre-made healthy snacks. 

Sourced largely from US farms, all foodstuffs are plant-based and organic, as well as free from added sugars, preservatives, and flavors. 

As chocolate lovers, we’re utterly obsessed with Fudge Brownie Real Food Bars, which taste like real brownies but are made of—you guessed it— real food (consumable gifts, anyone?).

As with all their snacks, each bar is individually wrapped in a compostable wrapper, but you can buy bulk quantities to reduce the frequency of ordering.

In addition to organic snacks, they also offer select self-care, kitchen, and home bulk goods, like shampoo and conditioner bars.

About Sun & Swell Foods

A Certified B Corp and member of 1% for the Planet, Sun & Swell Foods isn’t serving up plastic in any way.

All food is mailed in home compostable bags or glass jars.

If you don’t have an indoor compost bin or composting service near you, be sure to add a Compostable Bag Return Mailer to your first order, so you can return up to 40 bags to be composted by Sun & Swell.

What’s more, your online bulk grocery shopping will be low-impact all the way to your door thanks to eco-friendly packaging and an option to choose carbon offset shipping.


7. Miniml Refills

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Images by Miniml Refills

Miniml Refills’ Best Bulk Shopping Online UK

Price Range: £2.50–£25

Miniml Refill’s selection of household cleaners, zero waste bathroom products, laundry detergents, and pet supplies like doggy shampoo combines safe ingredients with sustainable practices you can purchase online or in person (if you live in the UK).

Miniml’s bulk goods are proud to guarantee all products are vegan, cruelty-free, and paraben-free.

Which ingredients are used in Miniml’s eco-friendly cleaning products are just as important as what’s not used. Miniml refuses to use toxic chemicals masquerading as “green” options. Instead, all of their formulas are mineral or plant-based and all scents are plant-derived.

Once you place your order with this bulk shopping store, the package arrives at your door (in eco-friendly packaging), you refill your containers at home, pop the empty pouch in the postage envelope, and voilà! 

You’ve refilled and recycled, Miniml effort involved.

About Miniml Refills

Co-founders Emma and Scott visited a local refill shop during their University days, and compounded on the idea of refillable products by creating a brand that reuses while refilling all of their containers.

Situated in the Yorkshire Moors, the bulk store reuses jugs and pouches already in production and cleans them using nearly 80% solar energy. The cleaning machines are pneumatic or air-powered to reduce energy consumption.

Miniml believes in paying above the living wage to foster a strong work culture of like-minded people behind the common goal of reducing waste.


8. Saffi Saana

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Images by Sustainable Jungle

Saffi Foods’ Online Bulk Food Shopping

Price Range: $8–$85

What is the best place to buy bulk food online?

That would have to be Saffi Saana.

For the foodie in all of us, they have an extremely impressive selection of cooking ingredients used in Michelin Star restaurants.

They’ve got vinegars and cold-pressed extra virgin oils that will make all your meals spectacular (because what good are bulk ingredients without the right oils?). 

You’ll find organic and sustainably sourced ingredients in the online bulk grocery offerings from Saffi Foods. Meaning they’re raw, unpasteurized, and made without preservatives. Perfect for serving up on your eco-friendly dinnerware.

Even better, these oils and vinegars come either in bulk refill boxes (wine box style) or upcycled wine bottles sourced from partner restaurants (which are properly sanitized).

Once we tried their MICHELIN Star Tasting Kit, we were hooked. We’ve never purchased another brand of oils and vinegar since, and we especially love the 5L bulk olive oil refill box, which lasts us forever, even with cooking at home multiple times a day.

About Saffi Foods

With a deep appreciation for all the ingredients Mother Nature provides, Saffi Farms wants to give back by protecting our environment—which is why they’re committed to provide zero waste packaging options. 

They work with farms around the globe, and their Chilean, Spanish, and Mexican oil and vinegar is commonly used by James Beard awarded chefs across the United States. 

Saffi Farms works directly with farms to ensure transparency for each of their bottled and bulk products (you can take a tour of one if you like).

For shoppers, each product page will tell you where the ingredients are grown (which changes depending on the season), in addition to helpful cooking points like taste notes, suggested pairings, and the smoke point of the oil.


9. A Drop In The Ocean

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Images by A Drop in the Ocean

A Drop in the Ocean’s Bulk Shopping Online

Price Range: $4–$41

For high-quality yet cheap bulk buying online, check out A Drop in the Ocean.

From laundry detergent to all-purpose cleaner, you’ll find what you need to keep your house, clothes, and body clean—and do so in a way that will keep our planet clean, too. 

You can also source some of those hard-to-find products and DIY ingredients in bulk (here’s looking at you organic witch hazel extract, tooth powder, and dog shampoo).  

When you’re ready for your refill, just choose the “refill” option, and you’ll receive a return label to send back your empty container.

They make bulk online shopping so easy, you may feel like your efforts can’t be more than a drop in the ocean, but rest assured, making this seemingly simple change really matters.

About A Drop in the Ocean

A Drop In the Ocean plants ten trees for every purchase through their partnership with Trees for the Future (a total of 13,450 just last year). 

Their commitment to oceans is just as strong as their commitment to forests, and they donate 1% of sales to organizations like the Vermilion Sea Institute

For all orders, they use only reused packing paper and reusable, recyclable, or compostable shipping materials. 

Aside from their online ordering services, this buy in bulk store has delivery service in Tacoma, Washington.


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 Final Thoughts On The Best Bulk Shopping Online

Not to sound like an infomercial, but…are you tired of buying your favorite foods, household products, and beauty care items in excessive packaging?

Then let us quote one of our favorite sustainable shopping tips

Don’t sulk, buy in bulk! 

Our concerns (and that of thousands of individuals like us) about disposable packaging have been heard. We’ve seen a burgeoning rise in online bulk stores and general sustainable stores making it easier to get our favorite products sans plastic. 

Speaking of concerns, don’t be afraid to voice yours.

If you’re in love with a product but would prefer to use your own plastic free food storage container, let the brand or store know or ask for alternatives. 

Consumer demand is what’s driving this movement; let’s keep the momentum going! 

Speaking of momentum, pass this article along to the bulk of your friends, especially if they’re curious about bulk grocery shopping online.

Pin these:
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9 Bulk Stores Online: Shopping For A Waste Free Planet & Pantry Image by The Wally Shop #bulkstores #bestbulkgrocerystores #bulkstoresonline #onlinebulkstores #bulkshoppingonline #bestonlinebulkshopping #sustainablejungle

2 thoughts on “9 Bulk Stores Online: Shopping For A Waste Free Planet & Pantry”

  1. I was wondering if you had an updated version of this article? The wally shop is closed. I really found this article helpful and id love to know more.

    Reply
    • Thanks for letting us know Frankie, we will remove the Wally Shop! We do update our articles periodically but I don’t think this one is due for a while yet!

      Reply

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