How to Get Real Food at Wholesale Prices with Thrive Market

Katie Wells Avatar

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Wellness Mama » Blog » Reviews » How to Get Real Food at Wholesale Prices with Thrive Market

I’m super happy to finally get to share about an amazing new company that I’ve been using like crazy lately. In fact, I was so excited about this company that I said “heck yes!” when I was asked to be an advisor (and investor) with them so that I could help them choose products moms and families need most.

Wholesome Food- Wholesale Prices

The company is called Thrive Market and it is a cross between Costco meets Whole Foods online. Think Costco wholesale pricing on Whole Foods quality foods and brands with the convenience of purchasing through Amazon.

Thrive has great prices on a lot of our non-perishable staples and household items. In particular, I’ve bought a lot of our common household goods and foods from them, such as:

Great Prices on Great Products

Thrive Market is the first socially conscious online marketplace offering the world’s best-selling natural and organic products at wholesale prices. For less than $5 a month ($59.95 annually), members can shop 2,500 of the highest quality food, supplements, home, personal care, and beauty products from more than 400 of the best brands on the market, all delivered straight to their doors at 25-50% below retail prices.

This innovative marketplace offers healthy brands like Weleda, Dr. Bronner’s, Spectrum Naturals, Garden of Eatin’, Bob’s Red Mill, Nature’s Path, Eden Foods, Earth’s Best, Seventh Generation, Garden of Life, Jason Naturals and many more!

I did a side by side comparison of many of their products, and not only are they less expensive than the same organic and natural products on Amazon or at my local stores, but they are often cheaper than the conventional alternative. For instance:

  • Natural laundry detergent at the same price (or slightly less) that conventional chemical detergent
  • Organic and chlorine-free diapers and wipes for the same price as Pampers or Huggies
  • Natural floss, toothpaste, deodorant, etc. for less than conventional store bought
  • Coconut aminos for the same price as regular soy sauce
  • Grass fed beef jerky for less than store bought regular beef jerky

In fact, I saved over $72 when I ordered three of our usual monthly products on Thrive compared to Amazon or local stores:

Amazon vs Thrive Market Price Comparison on Gelatin

Thrive only carries non-perishables, so they won’t be a replacement (or a competitor) to local farmers and farmers markets, but they offer a less expensive and socially conscious alternative to non-perishable products often bought online. Our family is now buying many of our non-perishables and household products from them and supporting our local farmers and economy with our produce and meat purchases.

Free Shipping

Thrive Market also offers free shipping on orders over $49 to anywhere in the continental US. I try to order one big order a month and my shipping has always been free by doing this since I always have a bigger order. This is comparable to Amazon, plus Thrive membership is less expensive than Amazon Prime.

Thrive Gives

One of the things that really attracted me to Thrive Market and motivated me to invest in them was their social mission. For every membership purchased, Thrive gives a free membership to a low-income family to help make real food affordable to everyone.

Thrive is also committed to the environment by using recycled packaging and making sure that all of their own packaging is recyclable as well. They also purchase carbon offsets and are completely carbon neutral.

I’ve met the founders and team at Thrive and they are all very excited about the mission of Thrive and making real food more affordable and available, but they also all live and eat this way too.

Trial Membership

I’m not a fan for signing up for things without trying them first (in fact, I waited until I had a friend’s pass to visit Costco before signing up when we used to live near one) and I’m guessing you aren’t either.

Important!

Thrive Market is a new company with a big mission. Some popular items may be out of stock temporarily while they deal with minor growing pains. If something you are looking for is out of stock, please check back in a day or two and have a little patience!

Ready to give it a try? Click here to find out more about Thrive Market and try it for free!

Sources
Katie Wells Avatar

About Katie Wells

Katie Wells, CTNC, MCHC, Founder of Wellness Mama and Co-founder of Wellnesse, has a background in research, journalism, and nutrition. As a mom of six, she turned to research and took health into her own hands to find answers to her health problems. WellnessMama.com is the culmination of her thousands of hours of research and all posts are medically reviewed and verified by the Wellness Mama research team. Katie is also the author of the bestselling books The Wellness Mama Cookbook and The Wellness Mama 5-Step Lifestyle Detox.

Comments

93 responses to “How to Get Real Food at Wholesale Prices with Thrive Market”

  1. Beth Avatar

    I really hope they remedy their ‘out of stock’ situation quickly. And frankly, they should extend the 30 day ‘free trial’ an extra 30 days as it’s fairly useless with everything out of stock.

    I signed up before everything vanished and got one order, but when I tried to place another order within my 30 days everything was magically out of stock. I wrote it off to growing pains (and emailed them that they need to ‘fix’ their business model quick…), but it could be misinterpreted as a way to force people into the auto-pay period.

    The business model for annual memberships only holds up if stock is readily available and prices are notably lower than Amazon or local stores. If one of those fails, they won’t be in business long. Which is unfortunate; I was pleased with my order and their mission is laudable.

  2. Jen Avatar

    I can’t help but feel that we are being duped here. Yes, you save a ton if you compare to THAT gelatin from Amazon, but the two-pack is actually PT $2 more at Amazon per can. Wild Planet tuna is way cheaper at Amazon. Coconut Aminos as someone said is way cheaper at Vitacost, as are a few others I compared. Some of those other things, like the Castile soap, I get for true wholesale prices through Frontier co-ops. That makes me doubt the truth of the rest of what the author “compares,” if she’s not truly looking for the lowest price elsewhere. This really erodes my faith in Wellness Mama articles.

    1. Sheri Avatar

      I looked again at the website and I agree that we are being duped! These are not “Wholesale” prices. “Wholesale” means no mark-up, right?

  3. Ella Avatar

    I love the concept of Thrive Market, but I didn’t see a single item that I regularly buy that I can’t get cheaper at Vitacost or through Azure Standard. In addition, they were out of stock of almost every item I was looking at. For example, their one pound bag of hemp seeds were $10.45 AND they were out of it. Vitacost is only $9.59 per one pound bag (organic) and they frequently have BOGO sales. Also, Thrive was much higher on chia seeds. I can get them from Azure Standard for about $6 a pound! I understand not everyone lives where there is an Azure Standard drop, but I’d check Vitacost first.

  4. Haley Avatar

    I love the idea of this website. I actually just put my order in a few days ago. I have found, however, that some things are more expensive on here than at grocery stores. Earth’s Best Organic Infant Formula is $31.95 on Thrive and $26.94 at Wal-Mart.com. Just be aware and double check pricing. I have found wonderful sales on here though and I do believe this website is worth the membership! Hoping for more products on this site in the future! 🙂

  5. Theresa Avatar

    I have been using Thrive for over 2 months now and I am extremely thrilled at their prices, their speedy delivery, they way everything is wrapped so glass containers don’t break. Great company, great prices!

  6. beth Avatar

    Thank you for sharing! I just did a pre-baby stock up on pantry items and can’t believe the great deal I got with free shipping + 20% off + the already fantastic prices.

  7. Rachel Avatar

    I’m really hoping thrive will start shipping to Canada!!! This looks fantastic!

  8. Steph Avatar

    Looks like they carry some great products, but like others have mentioned most prices seem pretty similar to Vitacost or even Amazon. The $60/annual membership fee could be a deal breaker because I know I can find these items for relatively the same price elsewhere and not have to pay the membership fee. Am I correct to assume that their prices can/will also fluctuate like Amazon or Vitacost as well? I would hate to sign up and pay $60 for the benefit of getting a good deal on FCLO and then have the prices increase. It also looks like many of the items I would like to order are out of stock 🙁 Will need to do some thinking about this site, but nice to know it exists.

  9. Chelsea Avatar

    Oooooooh Baby! Awesome info. Coconut aminos and gelatin were in my Amazon cart on standby. So glad I read this first!

  10. Stevan Avatar

    They have some great products but many of the items I want are out of stock. Do you know if this will be a continual problem? I would love to buy a membership but I’m hesitant if this is the norm since I would have to order the out of stock items from amazon anyway.

  11. Rachel Avatar

    Some things are spot on, but others are not. Some things are labeled ‘Paleo,’ but the ingredients list soy, sugar, peanuts, and brown rice, for example. Is there a truly Paleo jerky option at Thrive? Because I didn’t see one. I’m still exploring the site, and some things have been good finds, but there are some disappointments, too.

  12. Lisa Avatar

    Some of the things, such as gelatin, and one or two brands of shampoo were dramatically cheaper than what I can normally find, but it looks like you have to pay shipping. I think that would be a deal breaker for me. They do look like they have good products, but having to pay a membership plus shipping is off-putting for me.

    1. Erik Avatar

      It does say free shipping on orders over $49. That’s rather consistent with most sites. If you will be purchasing several of the items that you can find for significantly less on here, that off-sets the membership price. It just means ordering in batches for free shipping like most other places. Personally, I’m still running numbers to see if it’s worth it for me. Something that could help is if you and friends or local family share a membership, that means you can have an easier time batching orders for that free shipping.

      1. Lisa Avatar

        That’s true, and I did see that. I guess I’ve been spoiled by Amazon, being able to just order one or two things if I need them and getting free shipping. I’ve found that when I have to meet a certain amount for free shipping, I tend to spend more than I originally wanted to or intended to. Like you, I would really have to look more closely and see if it would balance out for me in the end.

  13. Erik Avatar

    Some of those can be found for similar prices, slightly higher or lower depending on their sale rotation, from Vitacost. For example, they have that same bottle of Coconut Aminos on special right now for $4.15 and they have some of their Wild Planet tuna on special as well.

    1. Sheri Avatar

      I love Vitacost as well. I’ve looked into Thrive but Vitacost wins and no membership fee. Vitacost has excellent customer service too and fast shipping.

      1. Josh Avatar

        It’s so encouraging to see that so many people are active about their health options online. Social consciousness is catching on and it’s wonderful! The great thing about Thrive is that because it’s a wholesale group, the low prices stay constant. I think this encourages people all over the country to be active about their food choices when buying staple foods and goods.

      2. KLB Avatar

        Hands down, Vitacost is the best value. I’ve been ordering them for over 10 years. Not only is there no annual fee, but they regularly have discounts that range anywhere from 10% to 20% off. When I see a 20% off of food, I buy in bulk and save a ton of money.

  14. Teri Avatar

    Wow that place is amazing, thank you for the link. I was running low on my conditioner and face creme so nice to restock at super cheap prices!

  15. Jared Avatar

    I remember in another artical involving great lakes beef gelatin that people were questioning whether great lakes actually IS grass fed or organic or anything other than just simply Kosher…

    Did you happen to find out the truth about it? I assume you still use it for a reason.

  16. Tasha Avatar

    Hope it comes to Canada. iherb is my only other viable source, and they just raised their shipping prices, so I am looking around for other options.

    1. Jacey Avatar

      Ditto! I stopped using iherb when orders were taking over a month to arrive and then the shipping rate increase to boot. Would LOVE to see Thrive Market in Canada!

    2. Marge Avatar

      I’m not convinced that I should spend $60 to join Thrive. I bought a few things on my first (and only) order and they were great. One brand of organic hard candy, which would be better for me not to buy because I can’t stop, were 40 cents cheaper on Amazon. The organic Choco-Chews (great but I can’t buy them again; just too good) were 30 cents more in iHerb. Organic prunes were $1.20 more in iHerb. A box of crackers (same comment as above) are 54 cents more on Vitacost. Sooo, very nice stuff packed very sweetly but for now, I don’t need another membership. All that said, I’m very impressed with the company.

      1. Dave cana Avatar

        The problem with thrive is they do not run well on traditional Browsers as per their own people. I run all Apple products and have had trouble navigating their site considering the millions of people who use Apple it’s frankly ridiculous that the platform was not written properly, they also have some problem with Internet explorer. I was told to use chrome or Firefox, I mean are you kidding me?

        1. Stephanie Avatar
          Stephanie

          IE is the worst platform out there. Total, buggy, garbage. Chrome is a hog. Firefox or Safari is the way to go.

          1. Dave Avatar

            Actually I am using Safari and have some problems utilizing the iPad and iPhone as well doesn’t work on that either and they admit that

  17. mary Avatar

    Hi there I live in Canada do u know if Thrive delivers there or if there is an affiliate in Canada. I find it hard to find healthy foods that are reasonably price. I am a single mom of three and we are all vegans.

      1. erica Avatar

        if you live close to any border crossing..you can consider a PO Box

        1. Josette Avatar

          I see where their office is in Ca. But doesn’t say it’s American owned . Can you show me where they say it’s American owned? I really want to use this company but not if the founder is not an American . Thanks

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