Today on lunch I decided on a whim to visit Sawall’s Health Food Store on Oakland Drive in Kalamazoo. This is a specialty store catering to the rich who want food that is alternatively sourced. That they cater to the rich is something I knew when I walked in there, expecting a little elevation in prices. But what I found really surprised me. I was looking at local distributors for the Medjool Dates that I so love and the Turkish Figs that I really enjoy as well. I didn’t really expect any local distributors to carry either so when I saw the Dates in both prepack and free-pick bins I smiled at finding another local distributor. Then I looked at the prices.
Sam’s Club has Bard Valley Medjool Dates on sale for $7.48 for a two-pound plastic bin. That’s $3.74 a pound. Nuts.com has Medjool Dates for sale at $7.49 a pound and Sawall’s sells Bard Valley Medjool Dates for $9.95 a pound! Obviously someone is getting the short end of the stick! Sams Club has probably leveraged a volume discount from the Bard Valley Dates grower, that’s the only bit that makes sense. So when Sams stops carrying my beloved Dates, and I bet they will as it’s listed as a “Seasonal Item” then I’ll be down to Nuts.com or Sawall’s. These prices are not prohibitive, but they are rather surprising and just seeing how the balance tips when you compare these local distributors and online distributors versus Sams Club really is a shock. $4 versus $8 or $10. If I didn’t know any better I’d say that Sams has the same screws on the date farmers that they have on the Pickle manufacturers, selling product for pennies on the dollar, at least when it comes to pickles.
As for the Turkish Figs? Nothing. At least locally. So Nuts.com will always be my vendor of choice at this point to obtain the figs that I really enjoy eating. It’s only prohibitive that I am not only paying $6/pound for the figs but also a UPS shipping charge of a few dollars more, effectively pushing my per-pound price of figs to about $10/pound. It’s not the end of the world, but it does mean I have to be careful and buy just the right amount so I can eat through them fast enough and not have to worry about spoilage, even in the fridge. I don’t really know how long Medjool Dates and Turkish Figs last in the fridge but I really don’t want to try my luck with such expensive treats.
At least in a pinch, if I really have to have them, at least there is Sawall’s, but the price… wow. It’s all a-blinky.