Bulk Pantry to move downtown

The Bulk Pantry in Winter Garden is making moves this summer — quite literally.

In June, the shop will be moving to a new location at 103 S. Main St. in downtown Winter Garden. The bulk goods shop originally opened in January 2018 in the Tri-City Shopping Center at the northeast corner of South Dillard Street and West Colonial Drive. With the lease for that location nearing its end, owner April Nobles said it was time to relocate.

“At the time (we first opened) … there wasn’t really anything in the downtown area that was feasible for, say, a start-up business from a budgeting standpoint,” Nobles said. “My lease is nearing up in August, and then fate has a way of stepping in. I have a friend — that we had actually (met) because of this store — and we had talked about a building that they had in downtown Winter Garden. They were getting ready to put it up open for a lease, and … it just kind of fell into place that I was able to work closely with them to go into their building.”

Like its name suggests, The Bulk Pantry offers a wide selection of cooking and baking ingredients customers can buy in bulk, such as nuts, candies, spices, flours, coffees and dried fruits and vegetables. Over time — and at the request of her customers — Nobles expanded her shop’s offerings to include various baked goods. 

“We started out, primarily, by doing just bulk items,” Nobles said. “It was just a mixture of dry goods (at first). Then, the community actually started asking me if I had any keto items. This is when the keto wave and way of eating was just coming into play. I had to do my research and figure out what it was they were looking for: Was it the dry-goods part of it or something different? It actually turned out to be something different. They were wanting the baked goods.”

Although she started with keto baked goods, she has expanded to offer other treats, as well. Nobles also offers low-carb, gluten-free and sugar-free baked items. 

“I just started out implementing some muffins, and then it evolved into breads, and then it evolved into cupcakes,” she said. “Now it’s evolved into a full, custom-baked goods (shop). I kept the bulk aspect of it as well. … I still have an inventory of bulk items, but my business has transformed into more (of) the custom-baked goods.”

Nobles added that relocating The Bulk Pantry to downtown Winter Garden would be ideal because much of her business is driven by foot traffic.

“I always wanted to be in the downtown setting,” Nobles said. “My business is based, primarily, on foot traffic, which (at) this (current location) it’s a little bit more difficult to get that foot traffic. Whereas at the downtown setting, obviously, it’s not — there’s a ton of foot traffic. ... It all kind of just worked out perfectly.”