How do you shop Restaurant Depot?

They have some things like Hanger Steak that are hard to find elsewhere. Milk prices are good too. Last week I was cooking for a dinner party of 40, they had pork loin for $1.39 a pound where Sam's was $1.99. We bake a lot and prices on good flour are very reasonable for 25 lbs. You just need to look around and see what you use and compare to Sam's or Costco. Oh, this sounds crazy but 50 lbs of onions was $6.00 so I grabbed a sack. If I only use 10 lbs I still got a good price.

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Milk prices are good too

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everything dairy related is cheaper at RD than others. Milk, heavy cream, Half&half, buttermilk, etc.

Any particular meats I should pay attention too? Looks like a lot of it is cases of steaks and things, I assume you have to buy the whole case?

Side note: Was thinking of doing a sort of co-op maybe with a couple of other families where we split up some things. Anyone have experience doing something like that?

I was just there on Sunday....buying Cambro bus tubs to transport baked goods. I priced a few ingredients I will need to buy in bulk soon....old fashioned oats, canned condensed milk. Both items were cheaper at WalMart than RD. But it's hit or miss: RD was way cheaper on the eggs & milk. So it pays to know prices.

I generally go to the place for smallwares & disposable items when I don't need a whole case. (Whole case prices can be cheaper through various online vendors.)

For the price nothing beats a hanger steak. It's actually my favorite cut (also known as a butcher's steak because he often kept it for himself). Just do YouTube searches in how to prepare it properly. You won't be disappointed.

Meat as stated is the best deal, I also buy Plugria butter its 3.49/lb.

The benefit of shopping at RD is that the food sales are supposed to be tax free. As it is a wholesaler, and the customers are supposed to be selling the food they buy there, the gov't can't collect twice. That's how it works in VA, where I am. Check your receipts, you should not be paying sales tax on food items.

You must have a business license to get a membership to the RD's around here, never saw non-membership RD. It used to be a cheap way for restaurants on a budget to purchase food and equipment without paying the delivery fees that most wholesalers charge, so it was worth it to drive there, plus you can hand pick your product and not rely on what they try to deliver. But when the food truck industry exploded, RD realized that they were the only option for food truckers to buy wholesale, so they raised their prices as the demand went up.

The ones I've been in (7 different ones) can vary from store to store. Some stores do a good job of keeping things organized and some do not. Also, some of them had good seafood or meat departments and some not so much. It just depended on who they decided to cater to.

Another thing when I was there was that they were constantly squeezing labor costs which caused clutter and just un-organization in the departments. I thought this was a bad idea because we were losing sales because things were not properly stocked or displayed.

Like others have said, it is still a good place to get good prices on meat, produce, seafood, and certain supplies especially if you are willing to buy in bulk.

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he benefit of shopping at RD is that the food sales are supposed to be tax free. As it is a wholesaler, and the customers are supposed to be selling the food they buy there, the gov't can't collect twice. That's how it works in VA, where I am. Check your receipts, you should not be paying sales tax on food items.

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At the one in NOLA, there was a huge sign up that basically said in order to buy stuff sales-tax free you needed to have an exemption certificate on file with the office.

Now, in LA, only local parishes charge sales tax on food, so that's a bit of a break.