Public benefits from wholesale produce

Max Jacobson

Wednesday, April 11, 2001 | 9:27 a.m.

The next time you plan to buy produce in large quantity, consider a visit to a local produce wholesaler. These operations, which can be either immense or on the small side, do the bulk of their business supplying local hotels, restaurants, and to a lesser extent, supermarkets.

Few people are aware that these companies will sell to the public, but quite a few of them do.

There is much to be gained by going this route. Often a consumer can save up to 20 to 50 percent buying bulk from a wholesaler, providing he or she is going to use it. There is also the opportunity to get boutique produce that is unavailable in markets, and also products that sparkle with freshness.

Just keep a few rules in mind. There will usually be some kind of a minimum. No large company, for instance, will want to be distracted by someone who comes in to by two or three bunches of parsley. You'll also want to bring cash. Getting a lower price for a small quantity is only attractive to these companies on a cash-and-carry basis. That means no credit cards and no delivery requests.

Following are three local companies where you can buy direct from the wholesaler:

Fresh Point

5420 S. Valley View Blvd. This is one of the city's two huge wholesalers, a 50,000-square-foot warehouse that formerly operated as Collins Produce. Director of Sales and Marketing Art Vega says business is divided evenly between hotel and food-service industry clients, and that the warehouse also does about 20 percent of its business selling to retail stores.

This is a great place to buy for anyone planning a family reunion, for personal chefs who shop in quantity, for small caterers, or for anyone who thinks long term. Sales are limited to case quantity as far as the general public is concerned, and bear in mind that here, as in all wholesale facilities, prices do fluctuate according to seasonal variations and changing demands in the marketplace.

A 25-pound watermelon will be around $24 right now, and a box of Rich's Vine Ripened Tomatoes, sized at 5-by-6, which means that there are 30 to a layer in a two-layer box, are around $20. Vega says his operation is "quality driven, not price driven."

During the summer months the warehouse stocks high-end Honeycrisp Stonefruits from Reedley, Calif., in the San Joaquin Valley, items such as Babcock peaches and Snowqueen nectarines. The company also does its own ripening and conditioning. Were you to buy a box of, say, avocados, they would be "guacamole ready," the way that the chefs and the restaurants like them.

Just a few examples of what you can buy: Romaine lettuce, 3 pounds for $10, and a 5-pound pack of peeled and turned baby carrots, $16. Fresh Point also has a variety of specialty items such as celery root, opal basil, chervil and tomatoes in every imaginable variety. Gallons of Perricone's juice stamped with expiration dates that can be weeks later than you'd find on a supermarket shelf, are $5.50.

Fresh Point is open to the public from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Get Fresh Sales

950 Pilot Road, Suite D

This is a privately owned, Las Vegas-based wholesaler with a new additional warehouse that makes it the equal in size of Fresh Point, about 50,000 square feet in size. Here, the policy allows them to break cases and sell in smaller quantities, but there will be a price adjustment upwards as the quantities get smaller.

The giant citrus room here is kept constantly at 45 degrees, but according to General Manager Nick Pedroza, "products are stored according to the temperatures that they tolerate best." Pedroza also explained that prices vary greatly with regard to particular items. Right now, for instance, the price of peppers and eggplant is astronomically high because of a huge killing frost that took place in Mexico. Therefore, a 1 1/2 bushel-basket of red bell peppers, from Nogales, Ariz., is around $30. In a normal year the price would be around $12.

Here you can buy Kracaw Russet Burbank potatoes, a large 50-pound box, for only $7. The season is just about to begin for California melons, but right now, there is a huge selection of melons of all shapes and sizes from South and Central America. On the specialty rack here are things such as baby Belgian endive, around $35 for an 8-pound box, sugar snap peas and radish sprouts. You can also get a 32-ounce jar of Christopher Ranch chopped garlic for $10, a terrific buy.

Get Fresh Produce is open to the public from 6 a.m.-4 p.m.

California Produce

3867 S. Valley View Blvd., No. 32

California Produce is a small wholesaler operated by a Burma-born Chinese fellow named David Chu. The business is around 4 years old, and the bulk of its customers are local Chinese restaurants. Chu says he'll sell any quantity to any customer, and that the savings over, say, a Chinese market, will be well over 20 percent.

Naturally, this is the place to buy a variety of vegetables used in Asian cooking. Baby bok choy, for instance, comes in 30-pound crates that Chu sells for $18.50, and gai lan, also known as Chinese broccoli, is $27.50 for a 30-pound box. Something you won't see in Chinese markets are do mieu, or pea shoots, that are wok ready. That's because the shoots have already been picked and cleaned. $35 gets you a 12- to 15-pound case.

Chu sells Western produce as well, and undersells most of the competition. Watermelon is only 55 cents a pound right now, a nice price, and Bluelake green beans are $25 for a 30-pound box. That means you can buy yourself a 1-pound plastic sack for only 90 cents. Try beating that retail.

California Produce is open to the public from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday.