With inflation on the rise and returning fears about the safety of going out, buying wholesale is looking more attractive than ever. With many goods in short supply due to supply chain backups, you might be able to get your hands on more for less when you buy wholesale, even if you have to sacrifice a bit on exactly what it is you want. So, just what is buying wholesale, and how do you do it? Read on to find out.
One of the building blocks of modern civilization is consumer surplus. When someone makes a bunch of socks or cans of soup, they make them in a large quantity so that they can be sold. The can of soup or the socks will pass through various hands on its way to you, the consumer. The soup or sock company generally relies on middlemen to get the soup or sweatshirt to you. Most people do not buy soup directly from Campbell’s or socks directly from Fruit of the Loom. Sometimes middlemen build up so much product that it prompts a backlash.
Because middlemen do the work of getting products to consumers, they will mark up the price in order to pay for their time and distribution networks. This takes the onus off of the producer to get the products into buyer’s hands. Sometimes there are multiple middlemen, marking up the price of products each step of the way in the “supply chain.”
The question for the savvy consumer, then, is how to get products without the markup of middleman distributors. There are many online retailers who make products available to consumers at factory or nearly factory-direct pricing. Some of them sell non-perishable goods, while others sell everything from electronics to clothing.
Perishable items, like vegetables, eggs, or milk, can be found on a number of websites. One of the primary difficulties can be what to do with that many carrots, eggs, or gallons of milk. One company, Boxed, offers “The Better Way to Shop Bulk.” They have no membership fee and you can also save on going to the store, not to mention concerns about having to wear a mask. There are other vendors as well, such as Bulk Food Box and DollarDays. Some of these sites seem to take direct aim on what would be considered a more traditional consumer-wholesale option, such as Costco or Sam’s Club. Jet.com was purchased by Wal-Mart.
Some savvy consumers even use their wholesale purchases and resell part of them on Amazon or eBay. Depending on how good you are at figuring out how to buy low and sell high, you may even be able to get some of your bulk purchases to pay for themselves! If you have a very large family, or an extended family living nearby, buying wholesale can make even more sense (or dare we say, cents), if you are able to pool funds and then split costs.
In conclusion, buying wholesale can be a great way to save money. With local authorities starting to re-implement mandates of various kinds, buying in bulk and getting it shipped to you is a very good option for home-tethered consumers.