A pack of 2 screws for a simple GPS mount for a fleet service vehicle is $4.00. Each mount needs about $8 in screws. If you have a small fleet of even 1,000 vehicles- you’ve spent $8,000 on screws, you’ll spend at least a quarter million dollars on $30 tiny plastic bits. For the 1,000th time- businesses work different than consumers. Sending a guy to Home Depot to get and check and sort 8,000 identical screws is not a good use of labor and will cost you more than just paying the damn mark up on the stupid thing.
even the mark up is still a mark down as you should be buying in bulk. I gotta say though, the idea of watching someone having to go to Home Depot, buy that many screws, and then make sure they are all identical sounds absolutely hilarious. I know the exact reaction because I once tried to sort every LEGO piece I had. It did not go how I thought it would go. I did at least manage two days worth and separated the vast majority of my technic pieces from my bricks. I also found like 20 skittles that were at least 4 years old, so it was nice to get those out. No idea where those came from, a friend covering an accident perhaps?
lol. The things you find in legos... your own or bulk buys. It took me 12 months to sort my loose parts collection the first time- I used 300 tiny plastic totes and sorted by element type- then later I got a better storage system so I could do type/color/etc. I picked out all the non Lego “blocks” and all the action figure parts and garbage... I ended up with a 60 odd quart bin of Kreo and off brand blocks that I’m sure whoever found it at the thrift store and wasn’t so brand picky was quite happy with the find. Lol.
As for buying in bulk- that depends on the bulk. But average can be between 5-20% on many items bought by enterprises. It’s kinda a lousy discount- but when you are buying bulk it can still be tens of thousands or millions of dollars in savings- and many suppliers build losses in to prices of other items. It’s part of the game.
So like- this company offers free consulting to new clients- does set up work and schedules meetings and spends time and labor power to plan a demo on scale for free- usually they’ll charge you for the demo out you don’t contract them. But- they did most of the heavy lifting to put the plan in place and understand the problem already- the only thing they didn’t do is the implementation. So even though they charge for the demo- they lose money. The way they make that up is by amortizing the cost across the line.
They might also offer things that most clients won’t buy from them. Just being able to offer it can have significant costs- but if you’re a client who NEEDS that thing- it’s a life saver and often what deals the deal. But because hardly anyone buys it but it has a cost that is carried or overhead- they have to mark it up or spread that cost. Many times that’s a method too- lower the price of the thing most people buy and make up the profit when someone buys the thing no one buys.
So just a bad but relatable example- you sell suits. Everyone buys jackets and pants but few people buy shirts from you (the fancy jacket and pants cover the rest so most people just use what they have or buy cheap ones since it won’t matter much.. let’s say.) less people buy ties or accessories. So you sell the jackets and pants for less so you can sell more of what people buy. The shirts are marked up a little and the ties and accessories a lot. He guy who complains about the tie price wasn’t going to buy a tie anyway.
The guy who wants to have a matching suit or doesn’t want to have to go somewhere else will just buy it because he’s there and it saves an extra trip. The guy who has no shirt or tie, or who NEEDS one right NOW will buy it because of need. It’s great to save money- but in business timing is CRITICAL. If supplier B can undersell on the same item but won’t have the quantity you need for months... and you launch in half a year so need it NOW to get started- you’ll pay more to make the launch.
Missing the project date could make you miss your window to market, it could make the board upset and get you fired, it could make your product or project obsolete by the time it hits, and that launch on that date could have hundreds of millions in it and precisely timed Windows carefully negotiated and time sensitive contract clauses- and so if it’s $5 million extra dollars to hit your target- against $100 million you’ll shit away if you miss- you pay the $5 million.
If it costs $100k to save $10k- you’re doing it wrong. And cost isn’t the only factor. The buzz word is “bandwidth.” Hiring people costs time and money- and you may not be able to even if you need people- or you can’t find skilled people in demand and are selective. Well... it can be a bigger problem to tie people up on bullshit time wasters to save money than to just do it fast and easy, spend the cash, and allow the day to day to continue.
Oh yeah, I see what you mean with specialty-like items, but again, that's the exception. You remember our conversation a few months back about NASA's screws and all the shit those things go through? That's an example of the exception; a bag of screws in a desk from IKEA? Nowhere near the same... and IKEA's going to tell you to fuck off if you bring it up, they aren't nearly as nice as LEGO or NASA >_>. But yeah, I was just glossing over most with my comments, exceptions always pop up and they are usually expensive.
About LEGO sorting... I can't stand things like Mega blocks in my shit, so whenever I come across one I throw them out. Most of the pieces are from a few old sets my grandma bought me when I was a kid, as she didn't understand the difference, and then twice parts of my stash were mixed with my friends' stashes.
Then you get into stuff like audit compliance or liability or office politics- preferred vendors and vendor relationships. Contracts for exclusive supplier rights, you agree to buy shit you don’t want or need because maybe a trusted supplier needs the boost or maybe they give you a bigger gain on a contract to take some slow movers off their hands or kick them work when they need it and are slow.
You’ve got all sorts of regs and policies for different industries and government contracts and eligibility- domestic products or labor quotas, tax breaks... and then budgets. Usually- generally- failing to hit your budget cap sounds like a good thing- but often that means your next quarter or year budget will be reduced because you came in under and cutting money you don’t need frees capital. Great in theory- except you may have not needed the cash this budget cycle but know you’ll need it next. So you have to chew up money to make sure your budget doesn’t get chopped.
It’s a lot of stuff people often don’t think about or deal with. Corporate finance and spending and operations work way different generally than running everyday life.
About LEGO sorting... I can't stand things like Mega blocks in my shit, so whenever I come across one I throw them out. Most of the pieces are from a few old sets my grandma bought me when I was a kid, as she didn't understand the difference, and then twice parts of my stash were mixed with my friends' stashes.