[oldE]

Another reason for the price fixation, is the purchasing department, (which has to justify itself) is almost never the department which uses the item, so the only handles they have on the item are price and availability. They are not concerned with performance, durability and effectiveness. In order to avoid paying a consultant megabucks to come into your business to tell you which way is up, talk to the people in each department. The guys in shipping will tell you which supplies come in half smashed. Maintenance can certainly point out the last batch of bulbs "have to be changed every week so I'm running around with the lift all the time and can't get my work done".
Small businesses don't have these problems. The owner operator establishes purchasing relationships with certain vendors because it works for him/her. They buy goods of reasonable quality because they are the ones working with those materials, and they don't want to waste their time. However, as businesses grow, the gap between purchasing and process grows and leads to the old 'upstairs-downstairs' mentality, where the suits don't think anybody down there understands and the blue collar folks know the suits don't have clue #1.
End of rant.
Les