Question: As we're all watching for price drops on charcoal does that mean that it's tough to come by in the winter months?
Is it a regional thing? (From MN here)
Do I have convince my wife it becomes scarce and it's an "every man for himself" situation and that several hundred pounds on hand would be best?
Help here...
Thx
merkong
Sent from my iPhone using Weber Kettle Club mobile app
You can find charcoal year round at "regular retail pricing". A number of times per year, generally with holidays associated with grilling, Kingsford original (KBB) goes on sale where it's a basically 2 for 1, or half price. This year, at least around here, Stubbs and Royal Oak briquettes went on sale at the same time. RO lump was on sale a couple of times as well. This is my first year of dabbling with these other brands so I don't know if they always go on sale like Kingsford does.
So, at least with Kingsford, no, there's no real need to buy a year's supply at one time, just get enough plus a little more to get you through to the next sale. That's the reality. What you tell wifey ? That's up to you.
Then there's Weber charcoal. It was just introduced this year at a price of $19.99 for a 20lb bag. Target stores started running them through their clearance cycle resulting in differing prices across the country, from state to state, city to city, and even from store to store within the same city/town. The lowest price is $5.98 which is 70% off. Long story short, I don't know if I will ever see it available at this low of a price again, anf it's really, really really good charcoal (burns longer, hotter and cleaner) so yeah, I'm stocking up on all I can. To the point that even though I have 14 bags of Kingsford, 6 bags of Stubbs, 4 bags of RO, 2 bags of RO Lump and 26 bags of Weber, I might try and figure out an excuse to drive 45 miles to Lexington to pick up a lot of the 53 bags I see in stock there.
BTW, a lot of this also depends on how often you grill out, i.e. how much charcoal you use.