Case Study Online Action

Chapter 23: Purchasing

Local Shelves, Non-local Suppliers
Contact the manager of a local independent retail store (not a franchise or chain) in your area, and ask if you can interview him or her for a school project. In the interview, ask about the purchasing process: How many different suppliers does the store have? Does each product on the shelf come from only one supplier, or is there redundancy? How much price negotiating goes on? How often do suppliers revise their prices?

Activity
Write a short interview report that summarizes the facts you found and answers the questions above. You may want to include a couple quotes from your interviewee.