# Where to buy cheap sugar?



## BizzyBee308 (Mar 9, 2010)

I live in Northeast Ohio and I'm wondering if anyone has tips on where to find inexpensive sugar to feed my bees. Thanks!


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## charmd2 (May 25, 2008)

Aldi's, dollar general store, and my local grocery store are are fairly comparable here. the local grocery store gets 4 lb bags on sale for $1.39 at least once a month. Aldi's and dollar general are slightly more expensive, but both are cheaper than walmart.


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## mothergoosemagic (Feb 26, 2010)

You should have some Amish stores in your area. Look into their prices for 25# bags since they "put up" a lot of their own produce.


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## ekervina (May 18, 2009)

I don't know about your local area, but perhaps my experience will help. 

We decided to buy about 100 pounds of sugar, which isn't enough to get a bulk price on in our area, and there wasn't a group buy going on. We expected that buying in a 25 or 50 pound bag would be cheaper, but when we checked, we discovered the warehouse club prices on 25 and 50 pound bags was the same per pound as 5 pound bags in most of the grocery stores. Surprisingly, in some stores larger bags actually cost more per pound than smaller bags. Nobody seemed to have a sale going on, so we went with the grocery store that had the lowest per-pound price.

We figure we have enough to take our two hives through the year, and for next year will be jumping on the opportunity if our local group does a group buy.

My point? Make sure you do the math. The places you expect to be cheapest may not be.


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## Swobee (May 18, 2007)

Certainly not at WalMart! Our local WM store sells sugar at $0.65+/ lb., while the local Dillons (Kroger) is around $0.45-$0.50. They are the best deal in this area, anyway. Those of you in ornear metro areas have more options that we do.


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## archiater (Mar 17, 2010)

BJs has very good deals in my area on 25 lb bags. So i buy 100 lbs at a pop. You might try BJs or Costco's there.


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## Michael B (Feb 6, 2010)

I buy mine at BJ's. 25 lbs is $15.


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## Brooklyn (Nov 14, 2009)

Try to find a food service supplier and ask to buy Mexican cane sugar. Has some junk in it but bees don't care. Cheep


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## WI-beek (Jul 14, 2009)

Or try buying syrup from a commercial beek. Hands down best deal for me.


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## lupester (Mar 12, 2008)

My wife just bought 10 - 4lb bags of sugar from Aldi in Fort Worth for $1.69 .43 a pound, not too bad.


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## StevenG (Mar 27, 2009)

I don't know if it makes a difference, but Aldi's sugar here is beet sugar, not cane sugar.


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## propet12 (Jun 17, 2009)

Village Market (grocery store) in Wellington has it on sale for $1.99 for a 5 lb. bag once in a great while . . . just be sure to leave me some! I've also bought 4 lb. bags on sale for 1.99 once in awhile just about everywhere else. I stock-up on the 5 pounders when I can. Christmas cookie making season seems to be the best time to get the best prices on sugar around here.


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## DutchBee (Jul 14, 2009)

Costco in GR has Michigan Beet granulated sugar. I paid 2.05 a pound. You can get it in 25 or 50 pound bags. Not as good as Aldi it sounds like.


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## stump56 (Apr 27, 2010)

wow thats more than 100 bucks for 50lbs


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## DutchBee (Jul 14, 2009)

My bad.... I paid 12.00 for 25 pounds.

.48 a pound

LOL... Dutch math!


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## stump56 (Apr 27, 2010)

thank goodness lol. .48 is not bad at all


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## heaflaw (Feb 26, 2007)

StevenG said:


> I don't know if it makes a difference, but Aldi's sugar here is beet sugar, not cane sugar.


According to Michael Bush's website, it makes no difference at all if it's cane or beet.

One should never feed unrefined sugar: powdered, brown because the bees cannot handle the solids. I don't know if Mexican cane sugar is refined or not but would like to know for sure.


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## CovertBeekInColleyville (Jun 12, 2009)

Along the same line...
Has anyone called Sysco or Ben E. Keith to see how much their #50 or #100 sugar is?


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## markmaster (Jan 21, 2010)

Costco has been the lowest price, consistently, in thes parts.... generally around 24.00 or so for a 50# bag. Plus, the cashiers don't look at you funny when you roll up with that much sugar in your cart!


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## waynesgarden (Jan 3, 2009)

Brooklyn said:


> ... buy Mexican cane sugar. Has some junk in it but bees don't care. Cheep


What kind of junk? I care, even if the bees don't.

Wayne


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## PeteS (May 1, 2010)

Did anyone consider a Baker's supply warehouse you can get sugar and fondant, also a place like Restaurant Depot that supplies restaurants and caterers. My 2cents.
Pete


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## Merlyn Votaw (Jun 23, 2008)

Try to find a commerical Beek that will sell to you I bought a barrell of sugar for $125.00. Had to drive 100 miles but it was worth. almost 650 lbs.Also check with some farmers in your area.Sometimes farmers feed sugar to horses and cows mixed with corn stalks


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## tct1w (Jun 6, 2008)

We have been getting sugar for around .50 a pound. Im going to have to check out Aldi,or excuse me,get my wife to check out Aldi. Peace Dave


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## honeybeekeeper (Mar 3, 2010)

Approx .52 cents a pound at walmart... 25 lb bags!


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## lupester (Mar 12, 2008)

My wife takes a box when she goes to Aldis just for the sugar and automatically picks up 10 bags for me. I think the last time she got 4lb bags for $1.49.


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## Kingfisher Apiaries (Jan 16, 2010)

Someone mentioned Ben E Kieth. I have some friends that own a restaurant and they were going to check with for me to see what BEK was asking for it. BTW, you have to call them to find prices. They are not on the internet. 
Has anyone tried to talk to cysco? We have a warehouse here somewhere.....
I am ready to start buying by the trailer load. 


Mike


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## Peter (Mar 28, 2009)

I don't think there are any such things as Baker Supply Warehouses in the MA/NH area.
After 2 years of looking I have never found anywhere that sells fondant and sugar prices in the local DeMoulas supermarket are comparable with the bulk prices in Costco/BJs and Sams. Wish we had an Aldi here as their sugar prices appear to be about 20% lower than what we have to pay.


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## lupester (Mar 12, 2008)

Yeah, Aldi seems to have lower prices on everything.Milk is ususally $.20 cheaper than Kroger/Tom Thumb/Walmart. They don't offer multiple vendors...they offer 1 but its the lowest price. I guess thats their niche.


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## wolfpenfarm (Jan 13, 2009)

heres what yall need to do, buy sugar by the ton. Have it shipped to a central location and load up into 55 gallon drums. Shoot you can get it dirt cheap if you order several tons at a time. 

would make sense to go in together in areas and just buy a load.


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## hilreal (Aug 16, 2005)

ALDI'S was .50 per pound yesterday. Kroger had 4 pounds for 1.89 today.


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## Kingfisher Apiaries (Jan 16, 2010)

wolfpenfarm said:


> heres what yall need to do, buy sugar by the ton. Have it shipped to a central location and load up into 55 gallon drums. Shoot you can get it dirt cheap if you order several tons at a time.
> 
> would make sense to go in together in areas and just buy a load.


Where can I order from? We have been talking about it, but cannot find where. 

Thanks

Mike


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## KevinR (Apr 30, 2010)

Searched around on the internet and found this.

http://www.dipuresweeteners.com/

No idea if they have a minimal order. Someone give them a call and get some prices.


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## NDnewbeek (Jul 4, 2008)

Sam's Club (Bismarck)

50lbs $26.00


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## KevinR (Apr 30, 2010)

That's still ~50 cents a lb.

Some of the numbers that I found for bulk sugar, was closer to 10-15 cents a lb.

I just couldn't find any other names associated with those prices.

*shrugs*


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## Galaxy (Jun 10, 2007)

KevinR said:


> Searched around on the internet and found this.
> 
> http://www.dipuresweeteners.com/


I called and a 2200 lb tote is $1210 and a 50 lb bag is $45.50. That is $.55/lb for the tote and $.91/lb for the 50lbs and you have to pay shipping on top of that. I can buy sugar at WalMart for $.46/lb.

I'm beginning to believe that some of the low prices for bulk sugar we see posted on threads like this do not exist. If they do, the poster should be able to give us the source (phone number or website) of the sugar source. I haven't seen that yet.


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## wolfpenfarm (Jan 13, 2009)

I found one that is .17 a pound. you have to buy 5511 tons of sugar to get that price.


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## Kingfisher Apiaries (Jan 16, 2010)

11.53 for 25 pounds (0.461/pound) is what I got this week at walmart. Its going down! Thinking about buying 500 pounds to stock up for winter......


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## Duboisi (Oct 7, 2009)

wolfpenfarm said:


> I found one that is .17 a pound. you have to buy 5511 tons of sugar to get that price.


That should feed quite a lot of hives.
But I assume that freight will cost some, and storage and packing.
Not to mention all the logistics with distributing it over a large area.
You may even need staff, and suddenly you need $.40 per pound to cover all the costs and an extra $.05 for the effort.


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## wolfpenfarm (Jan 13, 2009)

Yeah i know, thats over a million pounds of sugar. You could ship it in 3 cars on a train fairly cheap, from the port. but distribution at the end points is the question. 

has anyone thought about contacting your local bakery, not the walmart one but the one who makes the bread in the area that supplies all the stores. They buy sugar in totes and in quantities like 5000 tons. why not go buy it there. I am sure they would be willing to do that OR even sell y ou cheap the sweepings off the floor.


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## dindallas (Feb 5, 2009)

We live about an hours drive from Dadant in Paris, TX. They sell sugar syrup at $2.42 per gallon for fructose corn syrup - Type 55 (I'm not sure of the sugar/water ratio). That appears to be about half the cost of mixing it yourself not counting gas and time to go get it. Several of us may go together to reduce the cost. The cost of gas probably will be offset by the savings in time when buying it by the bag and mixing it ourselves.

Did I do the math correctly?

Thanks


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## mixofsam (May 30, 2009)

Super Target in Madison Wisconsin is selling for $4.74/10 1lbs.


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## timgoodin (Mar 10, 2007)

Current price of 50 lbs at Sam's Club Paducah is $29 or .58 lb


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## AndreiRN (Jun 13, 2008)

Smart & Final 50 lbs for $23.75 but I have heard of $17 per bag at some bulk outfit.


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## steve4bees (Nov 13, 2018)

this is a never ending question. 
yes a old thread, but relevant every year as prices change.

So where are people Buying Cheap Sugar these days?


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## Dwrizzol (Nov 26, 2018)

steve4bees said:


> this is a never ending question.
> yes a old thread, but relevant every year as prices change.
> 
> So where are people Buying Cheap Sugar these days?


I had my wife pick up a 50lb bag at Costco a week or so ago. $23/ 50lbs


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## propet12 (Jun 17, 2009)

Walmart $7.60 for 25 lbs.


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

Search for companies who use bulk sugar. Ask about spilled sugar and damaged totes. Once the sugar is compromised they can’t use it. I have a company giving me sugar...43 drums so far


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## KevinWI (Mar 18, 2018)

I just purchased 150lbs at Walmart for $46.....yep.....

I went online and looked and found 25lb bags for $7.60. ....that was 0.31/lb......
I was in walmart and the 25lb bags were $10.45.....I was confused....

So I ordered and paid online and had to travel to the store in the next town to pick it up but it was worth it.


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## propet12 (Jun 17, 2009)

A beekeeper I know bought a tote of compromised sugar last year, but unknowingly, it also contained saccharine and aspartame. The source he bought it from didn't bother to mention the artificial sweeteners. Make sure you know what you're getting.


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## snapper1d (Apr 8, 2011)

My walmart is $7.60 for 25# also.


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## AHudd (Mar 5, 2015)

It's still $13.16 around here, online.

Alex


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## Fpridgen (Jan 22, 2016)

Walmart's in our area are $8.22 for 25 pound bags.


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## rober (Jun 14, 2011)

if anyone has any large commercial bakeries in their area check with them. some sweep spilled sugar off the floor & sell it cheap. it will have some small bits of junk in it but it won't hurt or bother the bees. it can be had for .10-.15 per pound or less.


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## R.Varian (Jan 14, 2014)

Just purchased 25# bags of sugar here for $ 7.60 each. Online shows $8.22 for 25


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## soarwitheagles (May 23, 2015)

We heard reports here that many honeybees will not eat our local Walmart sugar [more than one beekeeper told us].

Now, we only buy the 50lb bags of granulated sugar from Costco. Never had a problem with it. Usually pay $21 per 50lb bag and the bees absolutely love it in syrup or sugar bricks! Unfortunately, we have not been able to afford the bee blend syrup at our local Mann Lake or Sweetner Products. I heard both of those products work excellent.

This is the first time I ever tried sugar bricks and I have been totally shocked...we used Lauri's recipe. 

We are discovering many colonies devouring large sugar bricks within 24-48 hours and the results are stunning: Several hives have doubled in size in a 7-10 day period in January! For us, this is unheard of. So we are seeing 10 frame colonies go to 20+ frames within a 10 day period. Now we are concerned about swarming...kinda nice problem to have in January/February!

Anyway, somehow it appears as if the sugar bricks turned our sleeping queens into machine gunning egg layers...

Oh, we also kept adding the Mann Lake Ultra recipe patties...but the sugar bricks are what the bees are devouring.

Tomorrow, all colonies are being trucked to the almond orchards...

Soar


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## allniter (Aug 22, 2011)

rural- king ---has 10lbs for .38 per lb ---I watch KROGER they have a sale .99 cents for 4 lbs bag


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## Beepah (Apr 13, 2018)

Most Walmart stores in my area have 25# bags at $8.22 each, but some are at $13.16 each. You have to check around. Last fall I stocked up with several 25 pounders from Walmart at around $7.50 each or so. Bees eat it just fine, syrup, cake, or straight, I've never heard of them turning their noses up at Wally brand in this area.


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