What to Do With 50 Pounds of Potatoes? The Quandaries of Bulk Buying

What to Do With 50 Pounds of Potatoes? The Quandaries of Bulk Buying
The pandemic has turned many cooks into big-volume shoppers, and left them puzzling out how to manage a bursting pantry of ingredients.

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But every store she visited in Portland, Ore., was out of flour and other staples, so last month she ended up at a retail website, Nuts.com. Carried away by the site’s bounty of options and its $79 minimum order for free shipping, she bought 20 pounds of beans, rice, flour and seeds — far more than she has any idea what to do with.

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“It is just completely absurd,” said Ms. Mann, 28, who lives alone. She has been eating lupini beans every day, and thinks she could subsist on just those for another month. “I have enough dry goods to last me through another quarantine.”
Among those who are privileged enough to afford buying in volume, the pandemic has suddenly spawned a new population of bulk shoppers.

They’re stocking up on foods they never thought they’d need in large amounts. They’re experiencing the simultaneous bouts of stress and satisfaction that come with buying and storing so much food, and trying not to waste any. They’re changing how they cook, diligently planning meals to use up all those ingredients — like, say, 50 pounds of potatoes.

Matt Bochneak bought the bag of potatoes from a restaurant supply store in Portland because it cost only $20, and he wanted some peace of mind as store shelves emptied. But he feels overwhelmed by the sheer volume.

“There’s no way I could eat 50 pounds of potatoes,” Mr. Bochneak, 42, said. He grilled a few of them, and had plans to make gnocchi — but the potatoes turned out to be the wrong type.


https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/11/dining/bulk-food-buying-coronavirus.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage