How much is a plumbers discount at plumbing supply house?

[MrEd]

I am curious, for those of you in the trade, its obvious that I, as a homeowner, pay a lot more than a plumber at these places (F W Webb in Western Mass for example).

How much am I getting the shaft? i.e. what percentage discount is someone in the trades getting that is not available to me?

 

[deerefanatic]

I don't know.. I wont deal with the one by me... I needed 40' of black iron pipe for the heat exchanger in my stove..... ACE Hardware had it for $46 for a 10 foot stick, Home Depot had it for $40 for 10 foot, and the plumbing supply house wanted $160 for 21 feet!! I promptly told them thanks but no, and hung up....

 

[webbie]

Depends on the supply house. Some smaller or independent houses give almost full discount to anyone who walks in the door. Trades may get 10% more.

But it is possible that places like Webb intentionally try to frustrate retail customers - they used to be "wholesale only" and would not even sell to a homeowner.

 

[MrEd]

I can deal with a 10% discount, which is more of a courtesy discount...but if I was paying 30-40-50% more than a plumber it would seem pretty unreasonable disparity.

Craig, your in my area of the state...where would you shop that would have good pricing for homeowners?

 

[webbie]

Well, have not really done a lot of shopping around here....used to live in NJ.....

But there, at Hainesport Supply, they would give prices close to "wholesale" to anyone who walked in.

With the advent of big box stores, the cover was largely blown for plumbing and heating supply houses. They had to adapt or die. Some may have adapted by only (really) selling wholesale. Others adapted by becoming "wholetailers", which describes that kind of place that will give decent discounts to anyone.

Sorry I can't help with exact shop names...as I have not done a lot of buying since I moved up here. However, a lot of places will sell stuff cash (cash at the counter or credit card)....I bought sheet metal at very good prices at a place in Springfield a couple years ago....I have a fasenal down the street from me where I buy some stuff (taps, helicoils, etc.)....if one has a business, you can buy a lot of stuff from Grainger (any business)

Depending on the product you seek....you have to dig around. Sometimes it is the big box that will have the best price.

 

[deerefanatic]

Right, I used my computer business to buy stove parts from Grainger! Although, Grainger is by FAR not the cheapest place to get stuff!

 

[chuck172]

Grainger is way over priced. Their clearance specials are O.K
Fast shipping though!

 

[pelletfan]

to add on more to the discount story.....

it really depends on your geographical area.

As an example: In my neighborhood, I get a discount of 20% (they call it trade-discount)with no service.
I better know what kind of products (valves etc.) are needed.
If I travel 20min further south, my discount ranges from 30%min to 50%max depending on products and I get also full support which means free advice.
Competition is the name of the game. If it does not exist you probably have to accept high prices.
You can purchase from the Internet too, but your freight charges are eating up your discount.

 

[free75degrees]

When you walk into the place, rehearse your lines and know what you are talking about. When they ask for your license # tell them you don't have one in this state. Maybe you'll get lucky and they'll give you the discount.

 

[pybyr]

I deal with my local branch of Granite group, and they treat me well and I find that a lot of the time, the prices on run-of-the mill things that they have in inventory, and the price they sell to me at, are about as good as some of the lower to lowest prices I find on the 'net Once in a while I find that I can get stuff cheaper elsewhere

Also, regarding the big box stores, at least when it comes to electrical items, I learned the hard way that some of the time, when the "same" item is cheaper there, it is because it is, in fact, a lower grade. When I first started rewiring my house, I got a bunch of stuff from HD, and discovered a surprisingly high defect rate and flimsy constructino on some of the items I got there.

I then went to my friendly local, locally owned electrical supply place, and found, when looking apples-to-apples on specs and grade, the local place was cheaper for better products.

 

[Chris S]

I (we ) spend over 100k / year in plumbing supply houses. I have accounts at 2 and pay cash at a third. I like to think that the trade price and servide we receive is based on the amount of business we do, and the timeliness of our payments. I also have no problem with the contractor who spends 500k/ year ( and pays his bills on time) getting better pricing than I do. It is very frustrating when I hear a homeowner get quoted trade pricing for an item I buy on a weekly basis for the same price.
We spend a lot more in lumber yards than we do in Pluming supply houses, and they (lumber yards) do very little more for us than they will do for a homeowner looking to build a deck or a garage. The mark-up just isn't there on most items.

As an aside, my theory on mark-up to my customers is " I need to make enough to be able to cover a call- back or Warranty swap out without charging the customer again) If a customer supplies product for us to install any warranty, missing pieces, or defect is all billable.

All that being said, good supply houses that I see sell to the trade anywhere from 10- 20 % on the high side less than over the counter to homeowners. I have seen the counterperson or manager charge higher markups to those that ask a lot of questions, and need a lot of help- this only seems fair- time is money. I also deal with supply houses that like to deal with contractors, they have nice showrooms for our customers to visit, but they want to sell the product to the contractor. They also (cleverly) showcase products that are not sold in the big box stores which makes them unique.

Lastly, regarding black pipe we use CSST pipe , but are also still threading black pipe for oil tanks, and some gas installations. The big difference in black pipe is quality. I recently went into my favorite supply house to get some 1" black pipe and was asked if I wanted what we had been using, or they just brought in a bundle of Chinese pipe - almost 30% cheaper. This could explain the original post.

Chris