Skip to content
Web GPO
Get Estimate

Frequently asked questions

What a group purchasing organization actually is, what changes when you join one, and what it costs. If your question is not here, ask it — we answer them ourselves.

Ask us directly

What is a GPO?

How a group purchasing organization worksThe eight things every operator buys: food and beverage, capital equipment, technology, uniforms and linens, cleaning supplies, office products, maintenance and transport. On your own you buy them at your own volume. Operators like you are buying the same things, so that volume is negotiated once, as a single contract. The order does not change — the same suppliers deliver the same goods — but the price falls, shown as a short bar beside the taller outline of what each was paying alone. The eight categories close into a ring around the one contract.Food & beverageCapital equipmentIT, telecom & securityUniforms & linensChemicals & janitorialOffice products & printFacilities & maintenanceFleet & transportationOne contract$1,250,000a year, on your own$1,110,000 on contract$140,000saved on the same order$100,000–$175,000saved a year, on $1,250,000 of foodEverything it takes to open the doors.On your own, you buy it at your own volume.Operators like you are buying the same things.So it gets negotiated once, as one contract.Same suppliers, same order — better price.That is group purchasing.
What is a group purchasing organization?

A GPO aggregates the buying volume of many organizations and negotiates supplier contracts on their combined behalf. You keep buying what you already buy, from suppliers you already know, at pricing you could not command on your own volume.

Do I have to change suppliers or distributors?

Usually not. Most of our contracts are with the national suppliers our members already use. The change is commercial, not operational — the same products arrive from the same trucks at different pricing.

What does membership cost?

There is no fee to access our contract portfolio. Web GPO is funded by administrative fees paid by suppliers, which is standard practice across the group purchasing industry.

How is Web GPO connected to Provista and Vizient?

Web GPO is a partner of Provista, part of Vizient, one of the largest supply chain improvement organizations in the country. That relationship is what gives a single restaurant group or manufacturer access to contracts negotiated across more than $100 billion in purchasing volume.

How accurate is the savings estimator?

It is an estimate, and it shows its own arithmetic so you can judge it. It applies published savings rate ranges to the spend band you select and calculates each band at its midpoint, except the top band, which uses its floor. It then applies a scale factor, because smaller buyers gain more from aggregated volume than larger ones already buying on their own scale. Every figure rounds down. An exact figure requires reviewing your actual spend, which is what the full analysis does.

What happens after I submit an estimate?

We send the calculation to you and follow up about a full analysis. That analysis compares your current pricing against our contract pricing line by line. You are under no obligation at any point.

What kinds of organizations do you work with?

Restaurants, hotels, resorts, casinos, and manufacturers, among others. The common thread is meaningful indirect spend across categories where national contracts exist.

You already know what you spend. Find out what you could stop spending.

Four questions, about a minute, and we show you the arithmetic behind the number.

Get My Savings Estimate