How do you buy lab reagents? - (Aug/22/2007 )

I read somewhere that most biological scientists buy their reagents directly online.

I am surprised. I thought the most common method was to go through institutional purchasing department, after you have looked up online what product is best for you and what are the prices.

Let us find out.

it depends on how funding works for your lab and/or institution. sometimes you use a card or po# and order directly; sometimes you use a purchasing dept. there's no hard-and-fast rule

our institution gets discounts when purchasing through the purch dept. - and they're very efficient, so most items arrive within a couple days. my last institution we were required to use a purchasing dept, and it often took ~3weeks to recieve supplies. it was a real pain.

yes.. it depends.
in my department, the university actually holds the money. So to purchase an item, all we need is to submit the name of the item, company/website address, catalog number and quotation number in a university order form.

So while the university makes the order, all the hangling and discount begging is done by individuals.

Thanks.

So, till now there are two responses essentially saying they are using institutional purchasing system. Let us hope more people jump in and tell about their system. Anybody with direct online order? Anybody using portals like Biocompare to order lab supplies. My original suspicion is that very few life scientists order that way.

I use biocompare all the time. unfortunately it's not comprehensive, but it's still good and it grows all the time. I just shop from it, though; I don't order directly

Hi ins,

May I ask why you want to buy lab reagents online without going through the purchasing department?

It may not be cheaper to buy online, as the purchasing department of the institutes and universities normally have discount (sometime up to 50%) from companies.

Oh no, mm.

I just read somewhere that more scientists buy reagents online directly or through portals such as biocompare.

I was surprised and disagreed, so I asked the question to the community.

I agree, buying through the purchasing department has many benefits: Discounts, aggregated S&H, somebody else haggling with shipping and Security concerns etc.

So, question remains for all.. do you buy reagents / equipment online?