When buying in small quantities, you will often find superstores and mail order vendor prices offering the lowest prices because of their ability to buy in bulk. Both channels commonly sell popular items priced at or below cost to attract customers. These losses are made up for by strategically placing higher margin generic items and over-priced impulse items.

Firms that purchase office supplies in large volume will often do much better negotiating prices with a contract stationer for frequently ordered items.

Because contract stationers know you will compare prices on the most commonly purchased items, they tend to offer very competitive prices for everything on your list of commonly purchased items. By including an accurate assessment of the items you expect to order, you can minimize the higher amount you will be charged for items not on your price sheet.

In addition to securing pricing for your most often purchased items, you may want to guarantee the prices for other items. See if the company produces an in-house sales catalog against which you can check pricing. In addition, it makes sense to agree upon a discount (as much as 35%-40%) on items ordered through the full-line catalog.