What is Azure Standard? How does it work? Is it worth it?
If you’re confused about Azure Standard, you aren’t alone. It is only within the past few years that I started ordering from Azure Standard, and now that I’m living in a town with a drop just down the street, I order semi-frequently to keep our pantry and freezer stocked with high-quality, clean food. In this article (and companion video), I’d like to show you what to expect with your first Azure Standard order.
What is Azure Standard?
Azure Standard is a type of food co-op that allows you to get healthy and organic food right at your location, even if you don’t have a health food store around. You can order a wide variety of products, including fresh produce, pantry items, household goods, personal care products, supplements, homesteading supplies, and a LOT more. Many are in various bulk sizes, but you can also buy smaller amounts of some products.
How Do Azure Standard Drops Work?
What is an Azure Standard Drop?
This is probably the part that confuses people the most: Azure Standard works on a drop system instead of delivering directly to your door. They have a map on their website where you can see if there’s a drop near you. In most places in the US, there are a lot of drops available now. It wasn’t always like that, and if you live in a less populated location, you may still need to drive a considerable distance to a drop. But it is becoming a lot more common and available across the nation.
How Often Do Azure Standard Drops Happen?
Azure Standard drops happen only once a month, usually on the same week of the month for your particular drop. When you check out, you won’t know exactly what day of that week your order will arrive. Rather, you will be given a “week of” date to expect it. For example, if the order is arriving the week of November 1st, it could be any day between November 1-7 (excluding Saturdays – they observe their sabbath on that day).
This is the one downside of Azure drops; you’ll need to be available to pick up your order. For most homemakers or retired folks, this isn’t an issue. But if you work a traditional schedule or attend classes during the day, you may need to make arrangements with a friend to pick up your items if you can’t make it.
Once the order ships, you will be emailed the date and time to expect the truck arrival, usually a 2-4 before arrival. If the truck experiences delays due to weather or mechanical failure, it may need to be rescheduled, and they will communicate accordingly. But generally, your order will arrive on the day and time stated.
What Happens at an Azure Drop Delivery?
When the truck arrives, it will open and everyone involved in the drop will help unload packages from the refrigerated and freezer compartments, sorting them into piles by customer name. Then the drop coordinator will double check the package piles against his list, just to make sure customers aren’t missing any products. Don’t leave before checking with the coordinator!
What is the Azure Drop Coordinator?
When you first join a drop, you will probably get information from the “drop coordinator” This is the person responsible in your local community for organizing your drop group. He is the person who arranges parking, organizes order unloading, and makes sure everyone has received their packages. (Drop coordinators also get some perks from Azure Standard for serving in this capacity.) Your coordinator may communicate with you through email, text message, Facebook group, etc. It depends on the person.
If you have any questions about your drop or Azure, you can always contact your local coordinator for the best answer.
Side note: Azure requires a minimum order amount to ship the truck to a drop. Your coordinator may mention if the group has met the minimum. This is more of an issue for newer drops.
What Fees are Associated with Azure Standard Orders?
In most locations, you will need to pay a shipping fee. (If you’re near their PNW location, shipping may be free for you; check drop details for specifics.) For me, I pay a fee of 8.5%, but this may vary somewhat based on your location.
They also have a small order fee where I live, so I always make sure to order a large enough amount at once (over $50 for me). I assume this amount is standard, but again, it may vary somewhat on your location.
If you pay with a card, you will be charged a processing fee (very standard for small businesses). You can avoid this by linking your bank account to your Azure Standard account and paying for your order directly. That’s what I do. If you don’t like those options, they do offer options like checks as well, which require a bit more setup. Details are available on their FAQ page.
What Types of Products Does Azure Standard Offer? Is It Worth It?
So one of the biggest categories is food – and really, they offer a little bit of everything. I’ve seen fresh fruits and veggies, pantry items, cheese, meat (beef, chicken, etc. – they don’t sell any pork, unfortunately), seasonings, snacks, baked goods, canned items, etc. They also carry health and beauty products, including shampoos, toothbrushes, soaps, and feminine hygiene products. They have a wide variety of branded supplements available, as well as some kitchen supplies like canning jars!
Another category that is commonly overlooked is outdoor and garden. I’ve seen people in my drops order items like animal feed, live bedding plants, and even metal barrels! :0
Does Azure Standard Pricing Make It Worth It?
Now what about the price? I’ve found that it really depends on where you live and what you need to purchase. For myself, I live in an area where I can easily get fresh meat, raw milk, and even eggs from local farmers. Those aren’t cost-effective for me to order from Azure. However, I’ve done more price comparison on pantry items in particular, and those are the cheapest I’ve found for organic wheat flour, barley flakes, dried beans, etc. I don’t live near any large health food store like Natural Grocers or Sprouts, so I order those items online for the most part, and Azure Standard has the best price so far. And in my experience, they’re extremely high quality grain products, too.
My Favorite Azure Standard Products
Here are some of my favorite items from Azure Standard:
- Organic Sunflower Oil – Yes, I know it’s a seed oil. But I do a lot of baking and I’m allergic to coconut and dairy, which leaves tallow, lard, olive oil, and avocado oil…all of which are incredibly expensive. I use this organic sunflower oil as a compromise in those seasons when I can’t afford other fats but still need to bake.
- Organic Blackstrap Molasses – I go through quite a bit of molasses as well, and their bulk jug lasts me quite a while. It isn’t quite as sweet as regular store-bought molasses, but it’s still very rich in nutrition.
- Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil – I’m picky about olive oil, mainly because it can sometimes be cut with soybean oil. I trust Azure Standard olive oil. It tastes fresh and clean, and I know it’s pure olive oil. It IS expensive, so I moderate how much I use. But it is extremely high-quality oil.
- Organic Dried Dates – These are yummy, too! Again, not the cheapest (so I don’t order them all of the time). But they’re very fresh and soft.
- Organic Dried Beans – I’ve price-compared and Azure Standard often has the best price on dried organic beans like pinto beans, red beans, kidney beans, etc.
- Organic Barley Flakes – I’m allergic to oats, but I like baking recipes that include them, so I use barley flakes at a substitute. Azure Standard Barley Flakes are so fresh and yummy.
- Natural Feminine Hygiene Pads – Kind of embarrassing, but…I’m here to help you find the best, and this is one I order consistently because of the price difference. I recently had to order some from another store and about gagged at the price in comparison; Azure had spoiled me, haha. This is a good example to check and see what they have. You might it is better for your pocketbook, even if you have to pay some shipping costs.
- Organic Wheat Flour – They have the cheapest price per pound. My Mom and I split larger bags, since we both do a lot of baking and I don’t have a lot of extra freezer space for flour.
Also, they offer Sale and Clearance items, so be sure to check those categories too. I recently got a pound of organic sesame seeds for $1.13 because they were past dated! (I haven’t opened the bag yet, but I couldn’t pass up that price, even if it was a risk.) Obviously, you have to be careful, but if you know what you’re looking for, you can find some amazing deals here.
They also have a tab called “Products I’ve Ordered”, which is handy for reordering items and checking if any of your essentials are on sale.
I’m still exploring Azure Standard, and I expect I’ll continue ordering things to try, especially as our family grows. For now, I just order a few things every month. But the items I do order? It makes it SO worth it.
My Customer Service Experience at Azure Standard
I’ve only had issues with ONE item, a bag of grain that busted on the truck. I contacted customer service immediately after the drop, and they were able to make things right. It’s been a few years now, so I don’t remember if they gave me a refund or an Azure store credit, but everything went smoothly.
One time, I did order apples on sale and they didn’t keep long at all, because it was the end of the stock and they were trying to move product. But that’s a normal risk for on-sale produce. I didn’t contact customer service, but I’m sure you could if it was unusable.
Are All of Azure Standard’s Products Organic?
They have very high standards for products, so I trust them more than, say, Walmart or even a place like Vitacost. But not everything is certified organic.
That said, Azure offers a unique opportunity sometimes with certain items, called “transitional” products. Last year, they had a tremendous sale on transitional cherries. (Looks like they still have some frozen cherries, haha.) Transitional just means the farmer is transitioning from conventional to organic practices, which usually means they’re grown in a cleaner way, but they can’t be certified organic yet. This allowed them to sell the cherries for a cheaper price than organic, without the quality being impacted too much.
Do your research and then choose products you’re comfortable with consuming. Everyone is a bit different in their priorities.