Industry Trends

Why I Stopped Chasing the Lowest Price on Shipping Supplies (and Why You Should Too)

Let me be blunt: I think the constant hunt for the lowest unit price on jars, bottles, and shipping supplies is a trap. A lot of people in procurement will tell you to get three quotes and go with the cheapest. After five years and roughly $50,000 in annual packaging spend across eight different vendors, I'm here to tell you that approach nearly cost me my department budget—and my sanity.

The Price Illusion

From the outside, it looks like the logical path. You find a vendor offering a 4-ounce glass jar for $0.15 less than your current supplier. You do the math: 5,000 units equals $750 in savings. That's a win, right? The reality is more complicated. People assume the lowest quote means the vendor is more efficient. What they don't see is which costs are being hidden or deferred.

In Q3 2024, I made this exact mistake. I found a new supplier for our standard 8-ounce Boston round bottles. Their price was 18% lower than our usual supplier (which, at the time, was Fillmore Container). The savings looked fantastic on paper. What I didn't account for was the lack of certainty.

A Costly Lesson in Certainty

I'm not a logistics expert, so I can't speak to carrier optimization. What I can tell you from a procurement perspective is that the 'cheaper' vendor couldn't guarantee delivery dates. When our production team needed those bottles for a new cosmetic line launch—a $15,000 event—the vendor's 'probably on time' promise turned into a two-week delay.

I still kick myself for not asking the right questions upfront. If I'd verified their invoicing and tracking systems, I'd have spotted the red flags. They couldn't provide a proper invoice (handwritten receipt only). Finance rejected the expense report. I ate $400 in rush shipping from a different vendor out of the department budget. The $750 in 'savings' evaporated, and I looked terrible to my VP when materials arrived late.

(Ugh. The whole situation was a disaster.)

Why Fillmore Container (and Vendors Like Them) Are Worth It

This gets into the idea of 'time certainty premium', which wasn't my specialty, but I've learned to value it. In my opinion, paying more for a guaranteed delivery is not an expense—it's insurance. Here's why I've shifted my thinking:

• Reliability over rebate: A discount code is useless if the product isn't on your dock when you need it. Fillmore Container's wide variety of sizes (from 1 oz apothecary jars to 64 oz growlers) means I can consolidate orders, which simplifies our accounting. That's worth more than a 10% discount.
• Standardization saves time: When I took over purchasing in 2020, we had 15 different types of lids. Now, I try to standardize where I can. Vendors like Fillmore make this easier because their catalog is consistent. I'm not 100% sure, but I think we've cut our inventory management time by 30% just by using fewer, more reliable sources.
• The hidden cost of switching: People assume switching vendors is easy. The reality is that onboarding a new supplier—setting up accounts, verifying tax forms, testing product quality—takes time. Processing 60-80 orders annually across multiple vendors, I can't afford that friction for every new 'cheaper' option.

"The surprise wasn't the price difference with the cheap vendor. It was how much hidden value came with the 'expensive' option—support, quick responses, and quality guarantees."

Take this with a grain of salt, but I'd argue that in our current market, the most expensive vendor is rarely the wrong choice, and the cheapest is rarely the right one.

Acknowledging the Counterargument

Now, I know what some of you are thinking: 'Not everyone has the budget to pay a premium.' I get it. This was my exact mindset in 2021. Our company had a hiring freeze, and I was told to cut costs by 15%. I went bargain hunting. It took one missed deadline to realize that unreliable suppliers cost more than reliable ones.

To some extent, I was lucky. The cosmetic line launch was delayed, not canceled. If we'd missed a major retail order, the loss would have been catastrophic. I now budget for a 'reliability premium' on critical items—jars for our best-selling hot sauce, bottles for seasonal products.

Personally, I prefer working with vendors who have skin in the game. Fillmore Container isn't the cheapest for everything. But when I place an order in January for a March production run, I don't want to be sweating whether the truck will show up. I want certainty.

My Recommendation

So, to get back to my original point: stop chasing the lowest price on shipping supplies. It's a false economy. The $0.15 you save per jar might feel good today, but it's not worth the risk of a $15,000 launch date falling apart.

The way I see it, your job isn't just to find the cheapest product. It's to ensure your team has the materials they need, when they need them. That means accounting for the cost of uncertainty. Paying a bit more for a reliable supplier—especially one with bulk discount codes and a wide product range—isn't a luxury. It's just smart procurement.

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Disclaimer: Pricing discussed is for general reference only. Actual prices vary by vendor, specifications, and time of order. Prices as of January 2025; verify current rates with suppliers.