A Little About Azure
Azure Standard runs like a co-op. They deliver their goods once a month to delivery drop locations throughout the United States. When you make an order you are committing to meet the delivery truck at the drop location and pick up your order straight off the truck.
Azure Standard is known for and believes in the benefit of organic foods. Although they do have some non organic products. They are also known for the ability to order bulk quantities but they also offer smaller or regular sized quantities for their products. Flour for example, their organic all purpose flour has size options of 30oz, 5lbs, 10lbs and 25lbs. I buy 25 lbs at a time.
Azure Standard is a family and community motivated company. They strive to provide affordable and healthy food to their customers. From the why they grow their organic foods to the way the deliver, their motivation is for the benefit of the family and community.
Why Buy Organic?
Organic foods can be expensive! And the question that always comes to my mind when seeing the price difference at the store is… “is organic actually worth this price?”. Is organic food worth the money? How much does it affect our health? Aren’t the labels out there all just a scam? In order to determine if organic foods are best for you, you will have to evaluate your own health conditions and your financial state.
Does Organic Foods Have Higher Nutrition Values?
The research is conflicting… Some say yes, some say no. I say yes and this is why.
What they have found to agree on is that organic foods have more antioxidants. Antioxidants help our body fight off free radicals. Free radicals can be very dangerous to our bodies and DNA causing cancer. Antioxidants help fight that from happening. Organic foods are a great source for antioxidants where conventional foods are not. Check out Healthline’s “What Is Organic Food, and Is It Better Than Non-Organic Food?” for more information.
Antioxidants not only protect our bodies but also protect the plant from disease. Non organic plants have chemical pesticides sprayed on them to protect them. By doing this the plant does not need to produce as much antioxidants. Organic foods are not sprayed with these chemicals and create their own protection through antioxidants. When we eat these foods the antioxidants in them also aid our own health.
There more I could say about the benefits of organic food but that will have to wait. Comment below if you have any question, I’d be happy to answer them.
Is The Price Worth It?
I can’t answer this for you. You will have to decide based off of your budget and needs. For us we try to buy mostly organic. We have a very tight grocery budget in this season of life and organic foods shouldn’t really fit in our budget but we make it work and this is how.
- We buy in bulk. When you buy foods in bulk the price goes down. Its cheaper. So we are able to save money with some purchases when buying organic bulk.
- We cook from scratch. I cook practically everything we eat from scratch. We do not buy prepared meals. Are kids eat fruits and veggies for snacks, there are no fruit poaches, goldfish or crackers in this house unless we make them ourselves. And I do make them. We save so much money and that money goes towards buying organic, high quality foods.
I can’t say that we never buy anything prepared, or that I make everything from scratch but the bulk of what we eat we make. I do buy rice cakes and tortilla chips and some other things like that on occasion. I do not grind my own peanut butter or mill my own flour (yet). But I do make my own brown sugar (How to Make Brown Sugar).
Azure Standard and Costco Price Comparison
Why We Shop Azure and Not Costco
We have a few Costco’s around us, the closet one being about 25 minutes away. I don’t drive due to seizures so we mostly grocery shop as a family. Therefore we don’t shop at Costco because it of the drive and time frame that we do our shopping. I wish it worked out for us to shop there but its not for us at this time.
Azure Standard has been a great source for us. I love, and my husband loves, that our drop location is 5 minutes away. This works for our family because I can do the time consuming shopping online at my leisure and my husband can do the quick pick up once a month.
I trust Azure Standards quality of food and I love their family, community and healthful living passion. Costco is great! But just not the same. From what I’ve heard from my friend who works at Costco the company side is really good but they don’t have the same motivation for what they do. And that’s okay. It doesn’t make me not want to buy at Costco, but it does make me want to be from Azure.
Price Comparison
Here I compared what I bought this month from Azure Standard with Costco prices.
My last review I compared with Walmart prices. To see that price comparison click here “Azure Standard Review, Pros, Cons, Price Comparison”
Disclaimer: Costco prices and stock may very depending on your location. This price comparison is based off of the online search of the Sacramento warehouse. The online and in store prices may also vary.
My June Azure Haul
Almonds
Chia Seeds
Whole Wheat Bran
All Purpose Flour
Whole Wheat
Coconut Oil
Avocado Oil
Peanut Butter
Sea Salt
Rice Cakes
Cornmeal
Total
Costco
$4.00 per lb
$6.17 per lb
not found
$1.00 per lb
not found
$0.18 per oz
$0.34 per oz
$0.23 per oz
$2.13 per lb
not found
not found
$14.05
Azure Standard
$5.65 per lb
$3.32 per lb
$2.40 per lb
$1.51 per lb
$1.88 per lb
$0.20 per oz
$0.66 per oz
$0.29 per oz
$0.97 per lb
$0.49 per oz
$1.28 per lb
$12.60*
*minus what I couldn’t price at Costco.
Now obviously this is prices per lb or oz so the total is not the actual number of dollars I paid but the price per lb or oz of each item. I though it was interesting Azure cost a little bit more with most of the items but The few that Azure was cheaper it was buy a signification enough amount to not only to even the total out but reduce it. I was actually kinda surprised.
In Summery
I’m still very happy with Azure Standard. The quality and taste of their foods is great. The price is in our budget and comparable to Costco and better than Walmart. Their delivery and drop off system works wonderfully for our family. The more I shop at Azure the more I like it!
Comment below what store I should price compare next!
Thank you for the review and your experience. Are you taking into consideration the delivery fees vs membership fees – I ordered from Azure and liked the products, but I found the delivery fees to be very high
When I wrote this review I had not considered the delivery fees. My state of California is one of the few that does not have delivery fees so it was never something I though about. Other states farther away from Oregon that have to use other methods of transportation other than Azures own trucks have a 8.5% delivery fee. And yes that can be a lot.
This sounds more like a plug for Azure than a comparison with Costco. We have a Costco membership, but probably only shop there three or four times a year. It’s not the best place to shop if you’re interested in healthy/organic foods. I have to watch my sodium, and there aren’t many foods there that fill that bill. I can still find healthy foods at regular grocery stores, and I feel that is where I find the best prices. I have checked out Azure, but since there are only two of us now, ordering in bulk will not work for us. But to each their own.
I do love Azure better then Costco, though I am not affiliated with them. I can see how ordering in bulk is not great for just two people. I have 5 kids in my family and make everything from scratch. I’m constantly looking for bulk deals and I’ve always heard that Costco is the place for that but I found that Azure is better for me. I do think that knowing you local stores is important and I’m glad you can find what you need there. Our local stores in our little city, although growing, are sadly expensive and/or not great quality.
Thanks for the information. The closest Costco is 30 miles away, and the Azure truck comes in 9 miles away. Azure is careful about their sources of products. I don’t know Costco’s policies. I love the ability of buying bulk from both stores. Their are only two of us, but I have a room that I store everything. I have never seen wheat berries at Costco. I make the bread that I eat and I sprout and mill the wheat berries I buy from Azure. A different subject. For your seizures, try the Karen Hurd diet. I am post-menopausal and eating beans have helped me be more functional. I have more energy.
Thank you for the advice, I’ll look into the Karen Hurd Diet. We eat a lot of beans in our family and that is also something that Costco doesn’t have. I’ve never seen dried beans there and canned beans is also hard to find at our nearest Costco.