Looking to buy two cases - 18 coconuts - for a party when I’m in town in August.
Easy to buy cases of the stuff out here in CA where I currently am but when I was living in NYC '09-'14, didn’t really see much at markets in Manhattan or even in Queens Chinatown or Manhattan Chinatown, except for the street vendors selling them one by one for immediate consumption.
Anyone see this anywhere and catch what the individual price or case price is?
This is for posterity since in case someone else needs this info. I managed to pull this off the previous weekend when I was in town @ Fei Long in Brooklyn Chinatown right on 8th Ave.
Listed unit price was $2.50/coconut or 22.50/case. I took 4 cases to the register and asked for a: the case price, and if I could get a discount.
Cashier had to call out for it and one of the produce guys came back with $20/case, which I was fine with.
There’s also an south-east asian wholesale in Gowanus by the name of Southeast Asia Market that offered a price of $24/case but said that it might fluctuate based on demand. Also, one would need a business license to buy from them.
If you call any market ahead of time, they can usually special order it from Hunts Point through their purveyor for you. Just give them a couple of days.
TL;DR I don’t think that’s likely to work.
I’m inclined to think that method is not reliable. I’ve asked liquor stores to special order items for me, even commodity items that they don’t carry but normally would be carried by another store and without fail, they have always failed to follow thru.
I dont see any incentive for a supermarket to do a special order for a single customer.
And a supermarket that doesn’t normally carry an item is likely to charge you more since it’s specialty for them, they may not get the same discounts that they would normally on stuff that they do carry regularly.
If they don’t carry it regularly, I imagine they have to call up the distributor to get a price, determine their margin on the product then quote it to you.
¯_(ツ)_/¯
I would normally agree - but I have had lots of success with WF in the past ordering things for me (as long as it is something they can get given seasons etc)
I am afraid of ordering this from WFM, their per unit price is normally $4 in SF where I live now, and where coconuts are normally available.
Can’t imagine how much they might be in NYC where that availability is not normal (not even Restaurant Depot carries it in the NYC or MA region).
They had them at Delicious Orchards in Scobeyville yesterday, did not get the case price. I thought it was unusual that they had the young ones.
