Vitamin shopping

December 13, 2006 11:57 AM

Where do you buy your vitamins?

Are there websites you use, or should I just go to some place like GNC?

posted by lagreen to Health & Fitness (26 answers total)

Walmart.
posted by jerseygirl at 12:01 PM on December 13, 2006

GNC
posted by special-k at 12:02 PM on December 13, 2006

CVS
posted by amro at 12:08 PM on December 13, 2006

I've ordered on-line from the Vitamin Shoppe, but these days I get some things at Whole Foods and some at Trader Joe's.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 12:15 PM on December 13, 2006

I've used both Vitacost and Netrition with good results.
posted by kindall at 12:25 PM on December 13, 2006

I use Swanson Vitamins. I've been happy with their products, prices and service so far, and if you get their emails there's always something or other that's half price or BOGO. They also have a handy pill guide so you can tell if something's gonna be a horse pill before you buy it.
posted by bink at 12:27 PM on December 13, 2006

Costco
posted by Good Brain at 12:57 PM on December 13, 2006

Seconding CVS. I get their Spectravite product -- it's inexpensive and often on sale. Available in chewables, too. It's loaded with vitamins and minerals, and includes trace metals such as tin and nickel in minute amounts. (!!!)

Like any multivitamin, most of the contents are excreted, of course, by those on a balanced diet. So don't expect to wear a red cape and jump over buildings in a single bound.
posted by Gordion Knott at 12:58 PM on December 13, 2006

Supermarket. Where Centrum brand are, say, $10, the Stop&Shop brand ("Century") are $6. Same ingredients/dosage.
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 12:58 PM on December 13, 2006

I buy vegetarian vitamins at my local natural foods store.
posted by sneakyalien at 1:05 PM on December 13, 2006

Fortunately I live close to the Smile Herb Shop but I believe they do online ordering as well.
posted by frecklefaerie at 1:05 PM on December 13, 2006

Sam's Club
posted by suki at 1:47 PM on December 13, 2006

Target
posted by DieHipsterDie at 1:57 PM on December 13, 2006

The grocery store. Or perhaps the natural-foods store.

I don't want anything particularly rare or special, vitamin-wise, though. If I were a bodybuilder or a vegan or something, my vitamin desires might be the kind that can't be fulfilled at Wild Oats or Kroger.
posted by box at 2:39 PM on December 13, 2006

I read once that there are not very good quality controls or government regulation on what is actually contained in dietary supplements, including vitamins. Do any of you know that your source is really putting into the vitamins what they claim? If so, how?
posted by grouse at 3:04 PM on December 13, 2006

Puritan's Pride has a website and mail order catalog, and they always seem to have the best deals. There's always either a percentage off or some kind of BOGO. Their previous promotion (just ended) was "Buy 2, Get 4 Free".
posted by chimmyc at 3:10 PM on December 13, 2006

Are you near a Trader Joe's? They market under their own brand, so I'm not sure about quality control, but the price is right, and I haven't succumbed to scurvy yet. Costco, aforementioned, also offers good prices.
posted by foxy_hedgehog at 3:17 PM on December 13, 2006

This post has a link to guidelines for multi-vitamin supplements. Useful info.
posted by LeisureGuy at 3:22 PM on December 13, 2006

Ditto foxy_hedgehog. TJ's vitamins all the way.
posted by fuzzbean at 3:30 PM on December 13, 2006

Mostly Swanson, except for the exotic brands that they don't carry. Almost always the cheapest for a given level of quality. I like that they will often carry both dirt-cheap and premium versions of the same product, and will specify the (premium) ingredient supplier for the latter. Their customer service has also been above and beyond for me, which is nice.
posted by trevyn at 4:23 PM on December 13, 2006

grouse, the US Pharmacopeia does independent verification of vitamins. Unfortunately, it's a somewhat new thing and not that many brands have the USP seal.

I mostly buy NatureMade which has the USP seal and goes on sale at 2 for the price of one pretty often at my local pharmacy/supermarket. Except for multivitamins--they don't give the USP seal to multivitamins & NatureMade's are hellishly hard to swallow for some reason. I buy Solgar because their multivitamins have especially large amounts of each of the (water-soluble) B-vitamins (and they're easier to swallow, and I trust the company for some reason.)
posted by needs more cowbell at 4:36 PM on December 13, 2006 [1 favorite]

Thanks for the helpful information, needs more cowbell. Although I don't understand what you mean by "they don't give the USP seal to multivitamins" since on that web site, USP lists Nature Made multivitamins that they verify.
posted by grouse at 4:46 PM on December 13, 2006

Oops. Last I'd checked, they only put the seal on individual vitamins, not the Multis. They must have changed it recently.
posted by needs more cowbell at 4:57 PM on December 13, 2006

Seconding Puritan's Pride. I also buy from Whole Health, for price and because it has a pretty good selection of products with non-gelatin capsules ('m vegetarian).
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 5:09 PM on December 13, 2006

GNC stuff from drugstore.com (Amazon)
posted by prodevel at 10:32 PM on December 13, 2006

I've been very happy with the prices and service at allstarhealth.com.
posted by Manjusri at 2:15 AM on December 14, 2006