Wood at the grocery store

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Iembalm4aLiving

Feeling the Heat
Oct 3, 2008
271
N.E. Ohio
I'm guessing this has been discussed before, but I have to chuckle at the firewood stacked outside my local Giant Eagle grocery store. "Firewood - Great deal- 2 bundles for $10!!!"

These bundles contain 5 very small pieces of wood. I'm sure it's dry and burns nice, but holy cow!!! I must have half a million dollars stacked in my back yard!

I'm rich, RICH I say!!!
 
That stuff sells.....

Perfect for the occasional fireplace user.

You are indeed RICH, as we all are. And don't forget it.
 
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I stand as many splits as I can on end in an old metal milk crate, then tie a piece of baler twine around them. At $2 per bundle I sold quite a few this summer. And I still make more money selling it that way than the price I get for my normal bulk firewood.
 
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quads said:
I stand as many splits as I can on end in an old metal milk crate, then tie a piece of baler twine around them. At $2 per bundle I sold quite a few this summer. And I still make more money selling it that way than the price I get for my normal bulk firewood.

People in my neck of the woods do this often, and make a killing.
I live on a main road used to go to an Indian reservation (there's 2 roads to get in/out).
With NYS tax at over $4-5/pack... People flock to the reservations to buy them. Which equals a lot of traffic for sales on fruit/veggie stands and such ;)
I was thinking about selling all my willow this way... But then I figured someone might end up throwing a split through one of my windows at night when they figure out what a ripoff it is, haha.
 
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My dad actually has a guy who buys $10 stacks from him practically once a week once December rolls around-looooooooooooves his fireplace. Go figure...
 
See it near entrance of most grocery stores year-round here. Price generally runs $9 for 2 shrinkwrapped bundles of small splits,each one approx. size of 9-10" dinner plate. At that price I could sell the wood in backyard only & take a 2 month vacation.
 
I wonder how much a cord would cost....if you just bought that grocery store wood,,,,i'm not that good at math.... :smirk:
 
Someone did the math once. It was about 500-600 a cord I believe.
 
The Thornton's gas stations around here all have firewood racks that are about 18"x28" and sells for $24.99, and they seem to sell a lot of it throughout the year. That's $400 a cord, which means I'm sitting on a touch over $9,000 in firewood, provided I could sell it all at that price.
 
Joey said:
I wonder how much a cord would cost....if you just bought that grocery store wood,,,,i'm not that good at math.... :smirk:

$7.99 a cubic foot at the grocery stores here.

8x128 = $1,024.
I might be persuaded to sell some of my 5 year seasoned oak for that much.
Not any less, though.
 
My jaw about dropped this summer when a coworker said he spent $80 on wood for a weekend camping trip with another family. That was to cover HIS HALF of the cost!
 
billb3 said:
Joey said:
I wonder how much a cord would cost....if you just bought that grocery store wood,,,,i'm not that good at math.... :smirk:

$7.99 a cubic foot at the grocery stores here.

8x128 = $1,024.
I might be persuaded to sell some of my 5 year seasoned oak for that much.
Not any less, though.

Bummer.... I just realized at those rates my firewood is worth more than my SUV.

Hmmm....
 
$10 for 2 packs at the grocery store is pretty cheap. Around here its $6.50 per pack at the cheapest place, and they sell it.

I have used the stuff before and while I wasn't proud of the fact, it was good to be able to stop and pick up a couple bundles when I really needed it. Stuff burns very nicely. Hot and long burn times...just have to spend a little time getting the staples out of the wood.
 
At these prices, one would be foolish burning this stuff for anything but ambiance.

6.50 a pack makes the BTU's in a gallon of fuel oil look very economical.

pen
 
The price is to cover the cost of shipping it seems to me, most of the bags of wood I see are from overseas, Estonia etc....
 
ChrisNJ said:
The price is to cover the cost of shipping it seems to me, most of the bags of wood I see are from overseas, Estonia etc....

That always seemed odd to me that it was from Europe. Is there no wood here in The US?
 
What equipment do you need to split and shrink wrap bundles?

Might be cheaper to ship the wood to China , have it packaged there then ship it back ..LOL :)
 
Was down at my brother's house in western north carolina last week for thanksgiving...standing outside a store waiting for him and I see the wood bin. they were selling .75 cubic foot package for 4.50......said "Amazing Deal!...... over the bin.....my iphone calculated the cost of a full cord at 768.00...WOW
 
Same around here. Worst yet we have no shortage of idiots buying them in america.
 
I just had a conversation about these small boxes of wood sold in stores. I was at the gas station mini mart. I asked the clerk how well the boxes of firewood sell. all the stores around here carry the same boxes, http://www.hotwood.com/home.php
There were two boxes by the door, he said there was a whole pallet of them a few days ago. People do buy it, 9.99 a box if I remember right. This is for people that don't get it, don't want to get dirty. Nice clean boxes to stack in the stores, put in the car. I bet a lot of people think firewood only comes in boxes from the store.
 
I suppose the same could be said for people that buy eggs or meat at the store vs directly from a chicken or cow...

Many people have better things to do than cut firewood for the couple nights a winter they light up the fireplace or go camping.
 
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