If you have ever visited a Whole Foods Market (WFM), then you probably have seen WFM’s shopping row that contains dispensers for all sorts of wonderful nuts, sweets, and other snacks, as well as beans, grains, and cereals.

WFM refers to this aisle as “the bulk section”.

Each dispenser has a pull-down handle that opens a chute at the bottom of the see-through storage bin.

Pull the handle, and the goodies begin to flow — hopefully into a plastic bag that you put beneath the chute ahead of time!

The experience is somewhat like being a kid at a gumball machine but with the power to keep the goodies flowing as long as possible. — Very clever marketing, in my opinion.

I believe that WFM refers to this experience as “buy in bulk”, but there is a problem with this expression.

The applicable definition of the noun “bulk” to this situation is goods not in boxes or packages, typically transported in large volume.

This makes sense because the word “bulk” comes from the Old Norse word bulki, which was coined in the early 1400s to refer to a ship’s hold.

The idiom “in bulk” means in large quantities.

So “buy in bulk” implies that someone is buying a large quantity of loose goods.

But the WFM shopper fully controls the act of dispensing nuts, sweets, or snacks into a plastic bag.

In other words, one can buy as little as a fraction of an ounce of some delectable treat — not exactly what I would call “buying in bulk”!

Perhaps WFM intentionally uses the confusing expression “buy in bulk” because it convinces at least some shoppers that they are getting a bulk discount, but WFM does not charge a discounted rate for larger volumes.

Despite the confusing expression, you cannot beat the experience of walking down an aisle, seeing all sorts of goodies in clear-plastic bins, putting a plastic bag beneath your favorite bin, and holding down the bin’s handle for as long as you want — or until the bag almost overflows or you have run out of money!