Chris Holmes wrote:
30 or 40 years ago tradesmen could buy stuff a lot cheaper than people who
werent. These days anyone can walk into a wholesaler or onto the internet
or indeed into RS Online and get much the same price as everyone else.
Regular account customers get a slightly better rate, but its nothing like
the old days.

That's likely true for 'parts' - if you look at the price breaks on
somewhere like RS you can get a decent discount but you do have to buy 500
or whatever at once. As part of the university purchasing consortium we get
up to 20% discount on some lines at RS and Farnell, but regular punters can
get something approaching that by going through Quidco or Topcashback.

How does it work out for things like timber? Presumably buying a lorry load
is still going to get you a discount over buying in ones and twos?
Builders' merchants seem to be extremely coy about revealing their prices so
it's hard to tell.

(at the local one I opened an account, only to discover that even while
logged in to their website with a live account everything is still 'request
a quote'. FFS, I'll just go to Wickes)

Theo