Wholesale rates are tiered by quantity. Buy 3 kg of toor dhall and you pay one rate; buy 50 kg and you pay another — for identical goods out of the identical sack. This works out what the gap is worth on your volumes.
Live Chennai rates
Add what you get through in a month. We’ll show what the same volume costs at small-lot rates versus bulk tiers.
Nothing added yet. Rice, dhall and oil are usually where the tiers are worth the most.
Rates are live from our daily list and move day to day. Storage and cash matter: this works for dry staples, not for anything perishable. See today’s full price list.
Why this is worth a few minutes
A kitchen that sends someone out for 5 kg every second day pays the small-lot rate
roughly fifteen times a month. Its neighbour, buying the same 75 kg in two drops,
does not. Nothing about the goods changed — only the rhythm of the ordering.
Every rate in the calculator is our live published Chennai rate, tiers included, so
the output is checkable rather than illustrative. Only items that actually have a
quantity tier are listed; a flat-rate item has no bulk story to tell.
The honest catch
Storage. Fifty kilos of dhall needs somewhere dry, sealed and off
the floor. Without it the saving evaporates into weevils. This works for dry staples
— rice, dhall, oil, tamarind, jaggery, salt, packing material. It does
not apply to vegetables, dairy, or anything with a short life, where
the wastage from over-buying costs more than the better rate saves.
Cash. Consolidating means paying for three weeks of staples on one
day instead of spreading it across fifteen. For a kitchen running tight on working
capital that is a real constraint — which is exactly why credit terms on day-to-day
basics matter more than a headline rate.
Frequently asked questions
Does buying in bulk actually reduce food cost?
For shelf-stable staples, yes and measurably — wholesale pricing is tiered, so the same goods cost less per kilo in larger lots. It does not work for perishables, where wastage from over-buying costs more than the better rate saves.
Where do these rates come from?
They are Mikro Platforms' live published Chennai wholesale rates, the same ones on today's price list, including every quantity tier. They move day to day, so the calculator reflects today rather than an average.
What counts as a bulk tier?
A quantity threshold at which the rate drops — commonly 5 kg, 10 kg, 26 kg or 50 kg depending on the item. The calculator starts each row at the item's deepest threshold so you can see what reaching it is worth, then you adjust to your real monthly volume.
Do I have to buy it all in one order?
The tier applies to the quantity on an order, so the saving comes from consolidating — fewer, larger drops rather than daily top-ups. Same monthly volume, different rhythm.
Is my data stored anywhere?
No. The quantities you enter stay in your browser and are never sent to us. Only the rate list is fetched, and that is public.
