Just about everyone understands the fact that the more you buy of an item, the more you can potentially save per item. There is no place where this is more vivid than at the grocery store. You will notice promotions where you can buy something like 10 items for just $10 when they normally sell for $1.25 each. This is the obvious way to save money when purchasing in bulk. Another not-so-obvious way to save money when purchasing in bulk is to create what’s called buying groups (sometimes referred to as co-op groups).

Co-op Buying

The concept of co-op buying really started with friends and family members getting together to buy a large quantity of items. These items are heavily discounted per unit, but you need to purchase a large number of those items in order to get that bulk discount. In most cases, there is even an order minimum which means that you have to purchase at least a certain amount in order for the wholesaler to sell it to you.

The items are purchased from wholesalers from all over the world. These are often the same wholesalers that supply the larger stores. They of course are able to meet the minimum order requirements without much difficulty. If you can get together enough people to meet these order minimums for certain items then this presents an excellent way to save a good bit of money on each item.

Now, if your group is not quite large enough to be able to meet the minimum purchase amounts, then another option would be to look for a co-op group to join. It usually takes an invitation from someone who is already in the group. They will extend the invitation to you and then you request to join the co-op group. The moderator or moderators of the co-op group will then give the final approval to join the group.

Once you are a member of the group you then have access to all of the co-op sales. When you want to make a purchase you just select the specific items that you wish to purchase and then select the total number of items desired. Once the order minimum is met, you are then sent a bill to pay for your items, which are ordered once all payments have been received. It is a great way to save and not get stuck with more items than you can use.