Wholesale Resources
To stock a small Asian restaurant pantry by the case, order your highest-turnover staples — cooking sauces, seasoning mixes, hot pot bases, chili oil, and noodles — in full cases sized to about 2 to 4 weeks of use, because buying a sealed case lands each unit well below the per-jar price you pay at 99 Ranch or H Mart. This guide walks category-by-category through real case packs (units per case, net weight, shelf life) and ends with a sample first wholesale order for a 30-seat kitchen, so you can calculate reorder frequency instead of guessing.
When you buy a single jar of cooking sauce or one packet of braised-pork seasoning off a 99 Ranch or H Mart shelf, you are paying retail shelf price — which already includes that store's markup, their labor, and their rent. A restaurant buying retail is, in effect, paying another store's margin on every unit it cooks with. That is fine for a household using one jar a month. It quietly bleeds a kitchen that goes through a jar a day.
Buying by the case removes that layer. A sealed case is priced as wholesale per-unit cost, so the same sauce that costs you the shelf price one jar at a time drops to a noticeably lower per-unit figure when you take all 12, 15, 24, or 30 units at once. The exact saving depends on the item, but the direction is always the same: the more of your menu you can convert from single-jar retail to full-case wholesale, the lower your plate cost.
The trade is simple and worth stating honestly: you pay less per unit but commit cash up front and take on storage and shelf-life risk. So the goal is not to buy everything by the case — it is to buy your high-turnover staples by the case (the items you would otherwise be restocking at retail every few days) and leave genuinely slow movers alone until the math works.
Sauces and seasonings are where a small kitchen gets the most out of buying by the case, because they are the items you reach for on almost every ticket. Start with cooking sauces — the finishing and stir-fry sauces, sesame and peanut sauces, and chili-oil sauces that go straight into the wok. In our catalog these run roughly 160g to 240g per unit and pack 12 to 30 units per case, so one case is a realistic 2–4 week supply for a busy line rather than a year of dead inventory. Browse cooking-sauces to match pack sizes to your volume.
Seasoning mixes are the highest-leverage case buy for a Chinese kitchen. These are the pre-blended braise, fish, large-plate-chicken, and BBQ spice packs (brands like Red Chamber and HEQIXIAN) that let one cook reproduce a complex flavor consistently. They commonly ship 40 units per case at 100g–200g each — and because each packet seasons a full batch, one 40-count case can carry weeks of a signature braised or hot dish. Consistency is the real win here: every cook pulls from the same packet, so the dish tastes the same on a Tuesday lunch and a Saturday rush. See seasoning-mixes.
Round out the savory base with brines and fermented items. Brines (red, old, and white brine, around 20 units per case at 100g–200g) are the backbone of a 卤味 / lu-wei program — one case keeps a braising pot running for a long time because you top up and refresh rather than dump and replace. Fermented items such as fermented tofu (about 20 units per case, 320g) are low-volume but shelf-stable and central to specific dishes, so they are worth a case even if you only plate them a few times a day. Browse brines and fermented.
Hot pot base is the easiest category to forecast because consumption is almost mechanical: one base packet makes one pot. In our catalog the hot pot base ships 400g per packet, 25 packets per case — and 400g is sized to one full hot pot service, so a case is, very nearly, 25 pots. That one-packet-one-pot relationship is what makes reorder math trivial.
To set reorder frequency, count pots, not dollars. If your hot pot section turns, say, 20 pots on an average weekday and 40 on a weekend, a normal week is roughly 20×5 + 40×2 = 180 pots. At 25 packets per case that is about 7.2 cases a week — so you would standing-order 7 to 8 cases weekly and watch the actual pot count to fine-tune. Keeping one extra case as safety stock covers a surprise busy night without an emergency retail run.
The honest caveat: hot pot demand is seasonal and weather-driven (cold snaps spike it; summer softens it), so do not lock a fixed case count year-round. Recount your average pots-per-week each season and resize the standing order. Browse hot-pot-bases to match a base profile — mala, clear, tomato — to your menu before you commit to a weekly case rhythm.
Noodles split into two buying patterns. Instant noodles (spicy hot pot noodles, hot-and-sour vermicelli, wheat noodles) ship roughly 24 to 30 units per case at 266g–500g. They are fast, consistent, and forgiving on shelf life, which makes them a low-risk first case — every unit is a portion, so a 30-count case is simply 30 servings. They suit quick-meal and delivery-heavy menus where speed and repeatability matter more than from-scratch texture. See instant-noodles.
Rice noodles (Guilin fresh-style, Guizhou dry, instant rice noodle with sauce) range from about 16 to 30 units per case at 240g–640g, and the dry versions are the longer-shelf-life, lower-risk way to keep a noodle-soup or 米线 station stocked. Yield per case depends on portioning: a 640g dry pack rehydrates into several restaurant bowls, so a 16-count case of large dry packs can yield far more finished bowls than the unit count alone suggests — do the bowls-per-pack math, not just the units-per-case math. Browse rice-noodles.
On shelf life and storage: dry noodles are the safest case buy because their best-before window is long and they only need a cool, dry shelf. Fresh-style and sauced rice noodles move faster and have shorter windows, so order those in cases sized to a week or two, not a month, and rotate first-in-first-out. Whatever you buy, label each case with its best-before date on the day it arrives so the oldest case is always the one your line opens next.
Some categories never move in huge volume but still earn a case buy because they are stable and you use a little on a lot of dishes. Chili oil is the clearest example: in our catalog the red chili oil ships 350ml per bottle, 30 bottles per case. A kitchen rarely empties a chili-oil bottle in a day, but a 30-bottle case stores well, removes the constant retail top-up trips, and locks your per-bottle cost below shelf price for months of use. Browse chili-oils.
The principle for these low-volume, high-stability condiments is different from your hot-movers. You are not buying a case to cover this week's turnover — you are buying it because the product keeps, you will use the whole case eventually, and the per-unit wholesale price beats paying retail one bottle at a time. As long as the best-before window comfortably exceeds the time it takes you to work through the case, the case is the right call.
The discipline that keeps this from becoming dead inventory is honest turnover estimation. Before you commit a case of any slow mover, estimate how many weeks it will take to finish at your real usage, and confirm that number sits comfortably inside the best-before window with margin to spare. If a case would outlive its date on your shelf, buy a smaller format or skip the case until volume grows.
Three numbers on a case decide whether it is a smart buy: units per case, net weight per unit, and the best-before window. Units per case tells you how many servings or batches you are committing to — 40 seasoning packets is a very different commitment from 12 sauce jars. Net weight per unit tells you yield: a 640g noodle pack and a 240g pack are both one unit but produce very different numbers of bowls, so always read weight alongside the unit count.
The best-before window is the number that protects your cash. Match it against your weeks-to-finish: take your usage rate, divide the case quantity by it to get weeks-to-finish, and confirm that comfortably fits inside the date with margin. A case that finishes in three weeks against a long shelf life is safe; a case that would take eight months against a short window is dead inventory waiting to happen. On every product page we list unit size and units per case so you can run this math before adding to cart.
Finally, log the best-before date on each case the day it lands and shelve oldest-to-front so your line always opens the case closest to expiry next. This first-in-first-out habit is the single cheapest way to make sure buying by the case lowers your costs instead of quietly generating waste.
Here is a conservative, honest first by-the-case order for a 30-seat Chinese restaurant that has been restocking at retail — sized to roughly 2–4 weeks of use so you learn your real turnover before scaling. The point is to convert your highest-frequency retail buys to wholesale first, not to fill the storeroom on day one. Treat these counts as a starting template and adjust to your actual menu mix.
Suggested opening order: 2–3 cases of cooking-sauces covering your most-used wok and finishing sauces (12–30 units/case); 1–2 cases of seasoning-mixes for your signature braised, fish, or BBQ dishes (40 units/case goes a long way, so start light); 1 case of brines if you run a 卤味 pot (20/case); and 1 case of fermented items if a specific dish needs them (20/case). For the noodle and hot pot side: 1–2 cases of instant-noodles (24–30/case) and/or rice-noodles (16–30/case) matched to your menu, plus hot-pot-bases sized to your pots-per-week if hot pot is on the menu (400g packet = one pot, 25/case). Add 1 case of chili-oils (350ml × 30) since it stores well and you will use it across the board.
After your first two to three weeks, recount: which cases emptied fastest, which still have units, and which best-before dates are approaching. That count is your real data — use it to set standing-order frequency per category (weekly for hot movers, monthly for stable condiments) and to decide where a second or larger case now makes sense. Order the categories above directly: cooking-sauces, seasoning-mixes, hot-pot-bases, brines, fermented, chili-oils, instant-noodles, and rice-noodles.
Case price depends on the item, its unit size, and how many units are in the case — our cooking sauces run 12–30 units per case and seasoning mixes commonly 40 units per case, so the case total varies widely. What is consistent is the structure: a sealed case is priced at wholesale per-unit cost, which lands each unit below the single-jar shelf price you pay at 99 Ranch or H Mart. Each product page lists unit size, units per case, and current case pricing so you can calculate your exact per-unit cost before ordering.
Our hot pot base ships 400g per packet, 25 packets per case, and one 400g packet makes one full pot — so a case is about 25 pots. Forecast in pots, not dollars: estimate your pots per week (e.g. 20 on weekdays, 40 on weekends ≈ 180/week) and divide by 25 to get cases per week (≈7–8 in that example). Keep one extra case as safety stock, and recount each season since hot pot demand rises in cold weather and softens in summer.
Instant noodles ship roughly 24–30 units per case at 266–500g, and each unit is one serving, which makes them a low-risk first case — a 30-count case is simply 30 portions with a forgiving shelf life. Rice noodles range from about 16–30 units per case at 240–640g; the dry versions last longest and the large 640g packs rehydrate into several restaurant bowls each, so calculate bowls-per-pack rather than just units-per-case. Order dry formats for the lowest shelf-life risk, and rotate fresh or sauced rice noodles faster.
Yes, when the product is shelf-stable and you will use the whole case within its best-before window. Our red chili oil ships 350ml × 30 bottles per case; a kitchen rarely empties a bottle in a day, but a case stores well, ends the constant retail top-up trips, and locks your per-bottle cost below shelf price for months. The rule for any slow mover: estimate weeks-to-finish at your real usage and only commit a case if that number sits comfortably inside the date.
Read three numbers on every case — units per case, net weight per unit, and the best-before window — then compute weeks-to-finish (case quantity ÷ your usage rate) and confirm it fits inside the date with margin. On the day each case arrives, write its best-before date on the box and shelve oldest-to-front so your line always opens the case closest to expiry next. This first-in-first-out discipline is the cheapest way to ensure case-buying lowers cost instead of quietly creating waste.
Convert your highest-frequency retail buys first and size the order to about 2–4 weeks so you learn real turnover before scaling. A conservative opening order: 2–3 cases of cooking sauces, 1–2 cases of seasoning mixes (40/case goes far, so start light), 1 case of brines and 1 of fermented if your dishes need them, 1–2 cases of instant or rice noodles, hot pot bases sized to your pots-per-week if hot pot is on the menu, and 1 case of chili oil since it stores well. Recount after two to three weeks and set standing-order frequency per category from that real data.