Another intuitive reason to join a communal cooking effort is if one simply has more food than they can eat. This could come about either by buying bulk food, or if a person or their friends or family enjoy hunting or fishing.

To observe people who buy large quantities of food we gained access to a local CostCo store. By watching and interviewing customers who were purchasing large quantities of non-frozen chicken, we discovered that the majority of such people did not intend to use all the food at one event, but rather intended to freeze the chicken and use it over an extended period of time. The only subject who planned to use all the chicken at once was preparing for a large party for which she’d volunteered to bring a main course.

"This is what CostCo is for."

• sometimes people end up with too much of one ingredient (jason's friend who buys half a cow a year)
• buying in bulk is less expensive