Azure Standard - FAQ

Azure Standard 

What is Azure Standard?

Azure Standard is a company who delivers a large variety of bulk, natural foods, and natural personal care items to the public using various drop-off points. Their headquarters is located in Oregon and they have several drop-off points within 27 states.  Azure Standard has sub-contractors in different locations making deliveries more assessable to areas outside of Oregon-Washington-Northern California.

Currently, Azure Standard drop-offs are available for :

Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

Alaska and Hawaii receive deliveries through barge lines while the mainland states receive deliveries via semi-trucks.

Their Products:

They offer many organic, gluten free, and bulk foods.  Azure Standard also has a lot of hard to find items.  They give you the flexibility of ordering small amounts (1 lb an under) or in larger quantities (25-50 lbs).

They have a large range of fresh organic produce, meats, and cheeses (dairy and non-dairy) in addition to dry foods such as beans, grains, flour, herbs and even personal hygiene products.

I have found the the fresh food can sometimes be a bit pricey, but sometimes the dry goods prices surpass what I can get locally.  I have found some really excellent prices on their site.

Azure Standard also states clearly if the product is organic, non-gmo, fair trade, gluten free, and even eco-farmed.  Also, the larger the quantity, the better the savings.

Here’s an idea of what they carry: 

(prices can vary at any time)

Black Turtle Beans

25 lbs. - $21.85

5 lbs. - $5.60

Cashews, Small Pieces

5 lbs. - $19.55

50 lbs. - $188.65

Wild Rice, Broken Piece

5 lbs. - $19.00

Wild Rice

1 lb. - $7.60

6 x 1 lb. - $41.35

Teff Grain, Maskal, Ivory

1 lb. - $2.10

25 lbs. - $37.95

5 lbs. - $8.90

Arrowroot Powder

5 lbs. - $12.85

Coconut, Shredded

2.5 lbs. - $7.65

25 lbs. - $56.85

5 lbs. - $13.30

Contact Information:

www.azurestandard.com
 Phone: 541-467-2230 Fax: 541-467-2210

Azure Standard welcomes phone and online orders.

How often does Azure Standard deliver?

Azure Standard makes deliveries to specific drop-off locations once a month. 

Placing an order:

Azure Standard has now made ordering more convenient.  You can now place your order into your cart without submitting it all the way up to the ordering deadline.  You can adjust your cart accordingly, making it easier for uncertain ordering and for placing group orders. They do have a deadline when placing an order and it is usually just a couple days before the delivery date.

Azure Standard now has a system online where you can look at the products and see how many items are available in their warehouse.  If you click on a product, the bottom  specs is titled “stock available”, and it will give you an idea of how much of that certain product is available.  They also include dates to when more of that product will be available, and if that product is unavailable due to being out of season.

Minimum orders and other charges:

They do have a minimum order of $50 and a minimum drop-off location order of $550.  In other words, each drop-off location can have multiple orders placed. However, each order placed must have a minimum of $50 and a total of $550 worth of orders for each drop-off location.

Other charges do apply.  In my location of the Idaho/Utah area, if your order is $200 or less, you are charged a flat fee of $16.  If your order is $201 or above, you are charged 5% of your order total, plus $6 for a gas surcharge. 

Keep in mind that charges could vary for each subcontractor location, but with the locations of Idaho and Utah, these are our charges.  Don’t let the charges hold you back.  They had to include a fuel surcharge due to the rising gas prices, counter-weighing the cost of driving the semi to your location.  No taxes are charged on the site, so for me, these charges are well worth it.  I can’t even mail a package weighing 6-10 lbs via USPS or UPS for under $10 unless it is small enough, but even then, it would have to be pretty small to fit in their flat rate boxes.  I can’t imagine the cost if it was 25 lbs or even 50 lbs of beans or grain.  Honeyville offers a $4.49 flat rate fee, but if you price everything out, they off set the shipping by raising the per pound price on their products.

The tricky part:

No matter how much I think Azure Standard is a great thing, there are a few quirks that can seem unfair, but their.  Again, this is for my location, but every drop-off route could be different depending on the sub-contractor.

If you order something that their website says in in stock, these items are on a first come basis according to drop-off date/time.  If someone who has a delivery date/time earlier than yours, they have priority over the item ordered.  If you ordered an item and it is not available for you, it is just deleted from your order.  It is not back-ordered, so you’d just have to try again if you still wanted that item.

This does reflect in your charges.  If your order is still over $201, no big deal, but if your order dropped from, let’s say, $201 to $150, you are still charged the flat $16 even though your order originally qualified for the 5%+6 charge (totaling $13.50 instead of $16). 

This may not seem like a big loss, but some buy items can be pricey. A 27 lb bag of coconut flour can roughly cost $90 and a 50 lb bag of sucanat may be around $110.  If you ordered both of these along with 2.5 lbs of shredded coconut, and were only able to bring home the shredded coconut, you are stuck with $16 worth of charges for a product that is under $8 instead of the original qualifying order of the 5% charge.  They are not trying to rip anyone off.  This is an honest company, but product demand is unpredictable sometimes and their technology isn’t as effective as it could be, so patience is the key.

If you order only a couple of things and are concerned about them being available,  just call or email the company.  Heather is amazing.  She is super nice and responds quickly to emails.  I’ve emailed her before about a product that was not in stock wondering if it I could get the product in the next shipment.  She will find out if it is in stock in the warehouse and how likely it would be for you to get the product. 

Group Orders:

In my opinion, I think making a group order within your neighborhood will give you convenience per order without having to worry about certain things not being available (example in “the tricky part” above).  You can split the fuel surcharge between the people ordering and if you are not able to pick up at the location date and time, there are a few other people within the order to work something out with.  This is what I did.  Last year I placed a large order and had a friend add her order to mine.  I picked up our order while she watched the kids.  I think it worked out great for the both of us.

If you choose to do a group order, only one order must be placed under one account.  You can view the prices by signing up (it’s free), but just make sure there is only one designated person placing the order.