Blue Chip Group, Grandma's Country Foods & Kitchen Kneads

My sister and I went on a "Food Storage Tour de Jour" today and visited many different establishments, primarily in Salt Lake City. In light of the recent "case lot" sales, I was pleasantly surprised to find such reasonable prices and a really great selection at all of these Establishments. Here is a summary of what we found:

Blue Chip Group (432 W. 3440 S., SLC UT): This supplier has recently opened a "store" attached to their plant. They had a tremendous selection of nearly everything you can think of with very, very good pricing.

• For example, I found Freeze-Dried Chicken, Roast Beef, and Pork Chops. The price for a #10 can of Freeze Dried Chicken is $30.97. A similar product at Emergency Essentials is on sale this month for $39.99/can, and Alpine Food Storage has a similar product for $38.00/can.
• I was pleasantly surprised to see a host of Gluten-Free products as well. I have a family member who needs these and they are often very expensive and hard to find.
• You can view a current price list at http://www.bluechipgroup.net/products/fdretail.pdf. You can also view their items in the "store" and get descriptions if you like at http://shop.bluechipgroup.net/main.sc.
• Just so you know, I believe some of these products may be less at Macey's case lot sale right now as they made such a big purchase from BCG that they got quite a discount. For example, during Macey's last Preparedness sale, I was able to purchase Dent Corn (dehydrated.....it is to mill and make corn meal when I need it) for $14.00 a bucket. It was much more today at BCG, but still very reasonable.
• If you want to fax in an order, you can and they will let you know when you can come to "will call" and pick it up. Or, you can do as we did today and just go "shopping" at their store. Overall, BCG was very easy to work with today.

Grandma's Country Foods (386 W 9400 S, Sandy UT): This was a different experience, but still a very good one.

• Most Utahns have seen "Grandma's Country Spices" in our local grocery stores. This is the warehouse, but they also have a store attached to it. The prices of the spices are very, reasonable, and they also have many Freeze Dried foods, appliances (grain mills etc) and Emergency Preparedness supplies. They even let us go into the warehouse to look at something I really want to get. (We will have to see if the Rooster of the house agrees:).
• We learned that they currently have their Powdered milk (Country Cream) on sale, and the #10 cans hold 51 oz versus the 33 oz of competitive brands. In taste tests with other Powdered Milk brands traditionally this brand is rated very high, if not the best. They have a case of 6 cans (#10) on sale for $60.00. The Lindon cannery charges $7.60/can, so they have the best price. However, since milk is such a "touchy" issue, you may want to purchase a can of each (Country Cream can be purchased at Macey's) and try them to see which your family prefers.
• The website for this supplier is http://www.grandmascountry.com/.

Cranes Kitchen Kneads (7579 S 1700 W, West Jordan, UT (801) 561-9616): They do not have a website, although the Ogden Location does.

• They also have many staples, a demonstration kitchen, lots of sprouting supplies, candy making supplies, and a great selection of nuts. I purchased some powdered cheese today that I am trying to do some "experimenting" with. It isn't that dark orange type (yuck!), but the type you would find in the the national brand of Mac and Cheese.
• In past visits to this store, if you cannot find a certain item elsewhere, I have traditionally found it there. Since it is a drive, and they do not have a website, you may want to call first to see if they have what ever you are looking for.
• Also, they are open Tuesday through Saturday only.

It seems that many people who were shopping today were stocking up, but for a different reason that I hadn't even considered. They were trying to get their shopping done before General Conference. I guess these types of suppliers sell out of many things around that time as people are reminded about the need for being prepared.