I wonder what charcoal sales will be like this year?


 
B

Brian Thomas

TVWBB Pro
It will be interesting to see what the upcoming holiday charcoal sales are like. With more an more folks getting vaccinated, and restrictions gradually being lifted by the summer, etc. The big box stores like Lowes and HD won't be in the same situation that they were last spring/summer when they were absolutely killing it due to people having to shelter in place and having a lot of time to work on home improvement projects, etc. The KBB sales at Lowes were nothing to get excited about and HD never put KBB on sale at all. The best deal was when Costco had their K-Pro sales.

We should get an inkling as to what the sales may be like if Lowes and HD have KBB on sale during Easter.
 
Yeah, I’m trying to really be as frugal as I can with the last 40# I have, the day a deal begins, I’m going to be on it like smoke on a butt.
 
I listened to a podcast with a rep from B&B, Ed Oreily. He said their charcoal sales have been great. They can't keep up with demand. More people cooking at home instead of going out has been great for backyard bbq. And he said its not hoarding, said before the pandemic, the average sale was 1.5 bag. During the pandemic, the average sale is 5 bags per sale.

If the other charcoal companies are like B&B, I would not expect to see much on sale.
 
I'm enjoying the K-Pro I picked up at Costco during the sales at the beginning and end of the summer. Unless Lowes puts the twin packs on sale for ten bucks, I'll stick w/ the Pro and will buy from Costco. Part of me is hoping to get a SmokeFire for my birthday, which is right around Memorial Day. So who knows, maybe my charcoal days are limited.
 
Haven't bought any charcoal in about four years now and still have about eight bags of RO, KBB, Weber and some lump. With the summer charcoal restrictions and my adversity to grilling in freezing temperatures I Just don't go through it like I used too.
Although with the camp chef I'm always on the prowl for pellets on sale and have a nice stash of different varieties to play with.
 
I had to buy some KBB at regular price the other day, I can't remember the last time I did that. I still have 12 bags of Weber left but I'm trying to hold on to that for a while.
 
Rich Dahl said:
Haven't bought any charcoal in about four years now and still have about eight bags of RO, KBB, Weber and some lump. With the summer charcoal restrictions and my adversity to grilling in freezing temperatures I Just don't go through it like I used too.
Although with the camp chef I'm always on the prowl for pellets on sale and have a nice stash of different varieties to play with.
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Question for you Rich. Are you allowed to use pellet on air restricted days? The reason I ask is here in wine country when a spare the air day is declared, you cannot burn any wood products. Just curious....
 
Mark Foreman said:
Question for you Rich. Are you allowed to use pellet on air restricted days? The reason I ask is here in wine country when a spare the air day is declared, you cannot burn any wood products. Just curious....
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Basically the restrictions are mostly for the forest areas but we happen to be in a fire district that has forest areas so we have no open flame or charcoal use all summer. It's for fire not air quality. No charcoal, firepits, tiki torches, camp fires, even weed eaters and welding torches are forbidden.
As it stands right now pellet grills and gas grills are okay as they are not on the list of what can't be used.
This is the 5th year in a row from April till late October that the fire restrictions will be in place.
I'm very careful when using any of my gassers or the camp chef. A couple of years ago we had a close call when a truck towing a trailer had the safety chain dragging on the highway and started a large grass fire on the large ranch next to were we live. The last picture is houses and outbuildings burning in our housing tract less than a quarter of a mile from our home. As you can see in the picture nothing but dry grass between the fire and us

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100_3065.JPG
 
We live in Corona, which is in Riverside County and falls into the long arms of the South Coast Air Quality Management District. There are limitations for burning wood, even in a grill or bbq. BUT.... our AQMD does not consider charcoal to be a wood based fuel.

SCAQMD - Regulation IV - Prohibitions
For those interested, in the pdf for Rule 445 Wood Burning Devices, on the bottom of page 3 and top of page 4 is the appliciable wording.
 
Good point Bob. I am going to double check our Northern California regulations again.
None the less, I do honor the spare the air days. We bought a Genesis II to use one those days.
Last September’s wildfire here in Sonoma. i took this photo of highway 101 at 8:30 am....
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Nice to live in Michigan, pretty much never have restrictions on burning in an enclosed area, no lawn burning but, with a walnut tree I have a lot of “debris” that is not leaves so, I can burn them in my street parts hearth. Since it’s contained as long as someone is present I can get rid of branches easily enough a couple times of year.
 
I'm down to 1 bag of KBB. It's priced decently enough without the sale but I still wish it was better. 50 cents a pound at 19.99 for 20 lb twin packs. K-pro is too expensive at Home Depot at a buck a pound sometimes more. I've recently seen ads for Blues Hog briquettes at Ace Hardware that has me intrigued for a buck a pound. The orange bag of B&B is around 50 cents a pound.

When we were getting 25 cents a pound during the KBB sales it was just a no brainer. I dunno if that's ever coming back. I've got some of the new Jealous devil briquettes but they are well over a buck a pound.
 
Last summer was horrible here (Alberta). No charcoal/briquettes anywhere....I always keep 4-5 bags around which is the only reason I made it through the season. Seems not too bad right now though....stocks seem to be increasing.

Unfortunately around here...it is bout $1/pound.
 
I was in Costco Business a couple of weeks ago, 40 lb. bags of El Diablo natural lump for $20. I probably should have picked up a bag.
 
GrantT said:
Last summer was horrible here (Alberta). No charcoal/briquettes anywhere....I always keep 4-5 bags around which is the only reason I made it through the season. Seems not too bad right now though....stocks seem to be increasing.

Unfortunately around here...it is bout $1/pound.
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I am assuming you are not to neat to one of the big BBQ stores in Edmonton or Calgary. I noticed the same thing nothing at any of the big box stores for the longest time. Gave me the opportunity to try out Jealous Devil lump that I can pick up 15 minutes away here in Edmonton. It would be nice if we saw some of those big sales on Charcoal that you used to see in the US here in Canada. I don't know if I have ever seen Charcoal on sale.
 
GrantT said:
Last summer was horrible here (Alberta). No charcoal/briquettes anywhere....I always keep 4-5 bags around which is the only reason I made it through the season. Seems not too bad right now though....stocks seem to be increasing.

Unfortunately around here...it is bout $1/pound.
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LOL I just checked your location and see that you are in Edmonton as well. BBQ Country is average price for Jealous Devil and seems like they always have some in. At $35 a bag it is on the costly side though. Have you checked out Backyard Grills in St. Alberta they have good selection of smoking wood, rubs and spices. Other stuff seems a little over priced though.
 
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