Food Auctions are back in the forefront as great money savers for people having a hard time making ends meet. Located in 9 states now, they seem to be catching on as consumers scramble to provide for the needs of their families.

By reading this article carefully and following the appropriate links, you will be able to determine if food auctions are right for you. Where available, you will find links to auction sites and locations, highlighted in blue or set aside in a text box. 

Please feel free to leave a comment or ask a question in the "comments" section below.

This article will be continually updated as information is received, so please feel free to save this link and visit again.

As you will see, gone are the images that come to mind when an auction is mentioned. Instead of expensive pieces of furniture or estate sales, paper products, frozen veggies and even meat products are being bid on. Fifty percent of a normal food bill can be saved by the time a bidder has won.

 One wife came to an auction with her husband, daughter and TWO large coolers in tow. She put a nice sized ham in one of the coolers. Her winning bid was $12.00.

The auctions are now being held in up to 9 states, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, New York, California, and Maryland.

Auctioneers hope to clear $1,000.00 per auction. At a time when regularly auctioned items have tanked in sales, auctioneers are only happy to auction off spareribs or cheese curls in their place.

If you are able to attend an auction on a regular basis, you will probably be well-advised to have an extra freezer handy, to hold all your winning treasures.

Since your spare freezer will not only hold meat, fish, ice-cream, but also veggies, bread, even milk and cheese, extra storage space can really come in handy as you bid on and hopefully WIN surplus items at your area auction.

What about quality concerns.As good as it is to find a great deal, there's really no point in buying food you don't believe is fresh enough for your family. If you are squeamish about adhering strictly to BEST USED BY DATES, then you might not be too happy with some of the selections you'll be bidding on. If you believe some food purchases are safe to keep and store, even if you are close to the SELL BY date, then auctions will be no problem.

It is true that the bigger supermarket stores wish to rid themselves of items getting close to their due dates, but that is the case with many outlet stores of major food producers and is the concept of "day old bread" from a bakery. The food is often quite good, and I've unknowingly enjoyed many bakery items that were discounted because of the time they spent on the shelf. So undo concern may not be warranted on a lot of the items sold at auction.

The FDA does not prohibit the sale of foods close to their expiration date. Primarily the dates are for the best tastiness of the food items.

BEWARE OF PROCESSED FOODS.Although you'll find them to be priced very cheaply, processed food would not be the healthiest choice for your family. Frozen meat filled with additives and preservatives cause more problems as far as obesity, high cholesterol and high blood pressure is concerned.

The future of food auctions seems bright. Since inflation levels are at a 20 year high, it would appear food auctions will only gain in popularity. A recent food auction in Pennsylvania, a state hard hit by lay-offs, had an attendance of 300 people happy to take advantage of low prices.

Of course it is wise to know your prices! At times a bidding war can develop and the winning bid is higher than the cost you would pay in a regular grocery store. That just defeats the purpose of attending an auction, when you are looking to save money.

In Southern Maryland

Auctioneer, Larry Forman regularly auctions off food at his auction hall located in St. Leonard, Maryland. His huge hall holds about 100 people who sit on folding chairs ready to auction on various food items. Items either ready to expire, damaged packaging, or over-stocked by distributors.

Items bid on include

• hot dogs
• cocktail wieners
• bacon
• 24- bottle soda crates
• Huge vegetable oil containers
• pork and beef

Quantities can be, shall we say extreme.

When asked what one family would do with 10 pounds of cocktail wieners. They answered, the wieners would be put in a crock pot with barbecue sauce and cooked for a party the couple was having. The winning bid was $10.00

Another husband said his family visits the auction for meat that lasts them several weeks at a time. Several months back he bought 10, ten-pound corn beef briskets, which his wife cooked up in various ways, as only a good cook can do.

Another bid was for 15, 1-pound boxexs of bacon.

The food supplier for the Chesapeake Auction House claimed that in the near future he would have 20 thousand pounds of ham available to sell.

In Bucks County, Pennyslvania

Col Kirk, recently held an auction at the Warrington Township Fire House, in Bucks County, PA. He has also had auctions in other parts of N.E. Pennsylvania, such as Wilks-Barre, New Albany and Pennsdale. They occur mostly in fire halls or social halls.

The auctions started in February and have occurred more than 30 times since then. Col. Kirk will continue holding auctions for those who need to save money by cutting down on their food bill.

The next scheduled auction will be in September, at Warwick Township.

See his list of future auctions at, www.auctionsbyKirk.com .

More Examples of Purchased Goods

• Family #1: 24-roll package of toilet paper. Winning bid: $10.00. 10-lb case of pepper bacon. Winning bid: $10.00 2-lb bag of mozzarella sticks. Winning bid: $7.00. Total spent on these items: $27.00
• Family #2: Single mom of 3 sons, a nurse. Spends $500.00 every 3 weeks. Some items included, 14-lb bag of restaurant sized onion rings. Winning bid: $7.50. 12-jar case of peanut butter. Winning bid: $8.00. 2 10-lb boxes of beef hotdogs. Winning bid: $7.50 Total spent on these items: $187.00

Banana Boxes in Pennsylvania Tri-State Area

Wholesalers who have cornered the market in the Pennsylvania Tri-State area and nationwide are the Pennsylvania Amish, Mennonite, Quaker & Dutch. They are opening banana box wholesale discount salvage grocery outlet stores. They are incredibly successful.

Their stores sell

• canned goods: fruit, soup, sauces
• bulk products: flour, cereal, pasta

Banana boxes are just what the name implies, boxes filled with no not bananas, but food items. The Banana website lists what a typical box could contain. The bidder or consumer expects to receive some bent-and-dent items.

Banana boxes are sold in full truckloads, which would be 26 pallets per truck, 48 boxes per pallet. All together that would be 1,248 boxes. Or in smaller quantity which is worked out with the wholesaler.

They purchase from bankrupt grocers, or from chains wishing to decrease their stockpiles. Albertsons, Giant, Weis, Acme and Kroger are some of the chain stores dealing with Banana Boxes.

Whether you buy the items for your own outlet store or for your auction, places like Banana Box Wholesale are willing and able to supply your needs.

FOOD AUCTIONS - GOOD OR BAD?

The jury is still out on whether food auctions will turn out to be good things or not. Some say they are great because money is tight and every cent saved is needed for families suffering economic hardships. Others make the point that people are now bidding on food that was once sent overseas and that some of the meat products are inferior cuts. Then there is the nutritional aspect of what people are bidding on as well. No doubt time will tell whether the good outweighs the bad, until then I suspect people will make the decision of whether to go to food auctions or not, based on their economic needs.

Finger Lakes, NY Area

One of the comments pointed out the auctions held very regularly in the Finger Lakes, New York area. (Thank you very much for the lead, nancy!)

There is a link now available for Bush Auctions.

Auctions are held in the towns of

• Seneca
• Conquest
• Addison
• Newark

Please see the link for exact times and locations. Bush Auctions accepts cash or NY checks.

Plenty of good food is available, according to his web information

• steaks
• hams
• turkey
• cold cuts
• TV dinners
• snacks
• candy

Hopefully anyone reading this article who has knowledge of an auction, will follow nancy's lead and let us know in the comment section. I'm sure there will be plenty of appreciative readers.

Atco, NJ

Big Harry's Auction, run by Vince Iacono, is listed as an auctioneer who also has food items available.

See the link for the address and time.

His next auction is Wednesday, June 3 and his auctions are held 3 days a week on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Haven't found an auction in your neck of the woods yet? Well keep checking back or get an RSS feed to see if an auction will be held in your area soon.

With food auctions growing in popularity, it is hard to imagine that there won't be more of them in the future.

This article will be continually updated with new food auction locations. If anyone finds out about an auction that has not been listed here, please contact me so that I may add it to the list, to help those who could benefit from the information.

• Salvage, Surplus Grocery Stores
• Food Cooperatives, Food Pantries and SNAP (Federal Gov't and State Programs)

The above add-ons will link to new articles featuring other alternatives to food auctions. They will also save money and allow better quality and cheaper prices. Just click the links to read the information.