Preservatives on Ebay?

[jonnifer]

I'm new to the forum and the business. We want to use preservatives in our syrup as we are in hot humid Texas. Getting preservatives through Snowie, 1-800 Shaved Ice, etc we incur huge shipping costs (up to $70!)

Has anyone found an alternative? Can you find it at the grocery? What about Ebay? There is no shipping with Ebay, and Sodium Benzoate and Citric Acid are both affordable through the site, but I'm not sure I trust the source. Any help is much appreciated!

[DerekinCanada]

Check out baking supply stores.
MySpicer.com in Denver CO sells both products, quite cheaply.
https://www.myspicer.com/shop/citric-acid/
https://www.myspicer.com/shop/sodium-benzoate/
They do charge for shipping (UPS standard ground is the default) but claim not to use shipping as a profit center.
I have seen Citric Acid in grocery and bulk food stores (Bulk Barn sells it here in Canada), but not sodium benzoate.

[jonnifer]

Even myspicer is ~$20 shipping. What about something like this?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SODIUM-BENZOAT ... 0503376955

[DerekinCanada]

The price is right, and it's food grade. They've got 100% satisfaction and 106 orders of this product, and have been selling on eBay for 20 years. Sounds like buying the sodium benzoate from there, and picking up citric acid at your local grocery or bulk foods store would be the way to go. The seller also claims to sell citric acid, but I couldn't find it on their eBay store.

[ShaveIce]

We also sell it for a reasonable price (in powder form) and comes with a gallon jug for you to mix it in.

https://www.shaveicesupplies.com/shaved ... allon.html

[jonnifer]

Shaveice2 - lots of companies sell it in that form, the shipping costs just make it extremely expensive. Even the powder forms.

[ShaveIce]

Jonnifer, the preservatives weight in at 2lbs. Depending on where you are at, the shipping is usually around 12 dollars. Even if the product were to be put in a medium flat rate box, it will still be around that price due to the base charge that Fedex/UPS/USPS charges. Its a light item, but it isn't a small item like a electronic.