Join the Alliance: A Manifesto for Everyone Who Buys Chemicals

A spectre is haunting the chemical industry: the spectre of the buyer who only needs one pail.

All the powers of the old order have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: the minimum order and the request-a-quote form, the paywalled certificate and the six-week lead time, the price list available upon approval of your credit application, and the hold music. Two things result from this fact. First, the one-pail buyer is already acknowledged by the whole industry to be a power, or nobody would keep building forms to keep them out. Second, it is high time that somebody published their views, their aims and their tendencies in the face of this nursery tale, and met the spectre with a manifesto of its own.

The history of all hitherto existing chemical procurement is the history of the request-a-quote form. Freeman and quote, patrician and purchasing agent, lord and lab manager, in a word, seller and buyer, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended either in a purchase order or in the buyer giving up and ordering it from a marketplace at three times the price with a label that says “for cleaning.”

So here it is. The satire ends with this paragraph; the terms below are literal, and we have been keeping them since 1998. This is the written version of a poster we put up this week. It says the same four things the poster does, and then the things a poster has no room for: who this is for, what joining actually means, and what we will not tell you just because it sounds good.

The four things we refuse to do

Every one of these is a decision. Each is easier for a supplier to do the other way, and each costs the buyer something they should not have to pay. I have spent twenty-odd years on the loading-dock side of this trade, moving industrial acids and solvents in everything from quart bottles to 330-gallon totes, and I can tell you exactly where each of these habits comes from. None of them comes from the chemistry.

1. We do not set a minimum order

A research lab needs one bottle of isopropyl alcohol 99% for a method that runs twice a year. A machine shop needs a single pail of degreaser and will not need another until spring. A minimum order turns that bottle into a case, the case into a shelf of expiring inventory, and the inventory into a reason to buy from somewhere that will sell one. Minimums exist to make the seller’s pick-and-pack arithmetic tidy. They are a spreadsheet’s preference, promoted to policy. One bottle is an order here. So is one tote. The spreadsheet has been informed.

2. We put the price on the page

Every product on the site carries its price, by size and by grade, before you have told us who you are. There is no login to see it, no request-a-quote form standing between you and a number, and no different number for the person who did not know to ask. If you want to compare reagent-grade acetone against the technical grade, the two prices sit on two pages and you can open both in two tabs, like a person living in the present century. A purchase order should be written from information, not from a phone call.

3. We do not charge for the paperwork

A Safety Data Sheet ships with every order, because the hazard communication standard says it must and because you should not have to ask. The lot-specific Certificate of Analysis is free too, with one honest caveat: it does not come in the box automatically, so if you need it, just ask, and we send it at no charge. That distinction matters and we would rather state it plainly than let a marketing line imply something the packing slip will contradict. Documentation is the evidence that what you bought is what you were told it is. Invoicing a customer for that evidence is like charging a witness to testify.

4. We ship in 1–2 business days

We do not promise faster than that, and here is the part of the job the poster cannot show. A flammable solvent, a corrosive acid or an oxidizer moves under the federal hazardous-materials regulations in 49 CFR Parts 171 to 180. That means UN-rated packaging matched to the hazard class and packing group, the right inner and outer containers, orientation arrows, hazard labels and marks on the package, a shipping paper with the proper shipping name, UN number, class and packing group, and a trained person signing off on all of it. I hold that DOT training certification myself, under 49 CFR 172.704, and I can tell you the paperwork is not decorative. Done properly, that takes real hours. What we hold ourselves to is 1–2 business days out the door, on a one-quart bottle and on a pallet of drums alike. If a specific order cannot meet that window, we tell you, rather than let the tracking number tell you.

Who the Alliance is for

The honest answer is: anyone who buys a chemical and would rather it be simple. In practice that is four kinds of people, and the old order sorts them into four different markets served by four different kinds of supplier who do not return each other’s calls. We think that is the mistake.

The point of the poster is that these are the same people. The lab at a large company is still a lab. The procurement desk at a small company is still a procurement desk, even when it is also the owner, the shipping department and the person who unclogs the parts washer. A supplier that only serves one size of buyer is asking every customer to grow into it or shrink to fit. We sell food-grade citric acid by the bottle and by the drum from the same page, and that is not a coincidence. It is the whole idea.

What joining actually means

There is no card. There is no membership. There is no secret handshake, although if you want one we will pick up the phone and talk you through it. Joining the Alliance means opening an account with a company that behaves the way this page describes, and holding us to it. Concretely, it looks like this:

• Buy one. Find the product, choose the size and grade, see the price, order it. That is the whole process for most orders, and it is the same process at one quart and at 55 gallons.
• Put it on a schedule if you want one. Our Subscribe & Save program lets you set a delivery every one to five weeks, with no minimum commitment, and cancel whenever the process changes. It exists for the plant that would rather not raise a new purchase order every month, and for the person who keeps discovering the drum is empty on a Friday afternoon.
• Go bulk when the line does. The bulk supply page explains how drums and totes ship, and the bulk buyer’s guide lists what to ask any supplier, including us, before you commit to a drum program.
• Ask for the documents. The Safety Data Sheet is on the product page and ships with the order. The lot-specific Certificate of Analysis is free on request. Grade questions, compatibility questions and “is this the right one” questions go to a person, not a ticket queue: contact us, or call 512-365-6838. That is a real desk in Taylor, Texas. We pick up the phone. It is, in fact, the company tagline, which tells you how rare it has become.

What we will not promise

A manifesto that only lists the good parts is an advertisement with a raised fist on it. These are the parts we would rather say ourselves.

Some hazmat shipments carry a carrier surcharge. Flammables, corrosives and oxidizers move under federal hazardous-materials rules, and carriers price that risk. When a surcharge applies, it applies, and we would rather say so here than let you discover it later. Our guide to delivered cost breaks down what a chemical shipment actually costs, and our guide to how hazardous chemicals ship explains where those costs come from. The revolution, it turns out, still pays freight.

The certificate is on request, not automatic. We said it above and we are saying it again because the industry habit is to imply otherwise. If your quality system needs the certificate for each lot you receive, ask each time; it is free, and it is yours.

We are not the right supplier for everyone. If your process needs a grade we do not list, we will tell you that rather than sell you the nearest thing. The promise is that you will hear the honest answer quickly, from a person, and that the price you saw is the price you pay. We will not promise you the revolution by Tuesday. We will promise 1–2 business days, which is faster than most revolutions manage.

Common questions

Is there really no minimum order?

No. One bottle, one pail or one drum is an order. Sizes and grades are listed on each product page, and the smallest listed size can be ordered on its own.

Do I need an account or a login to see prices?

No. Every product page shows the price for each size and grade before you log in or ask for a quote. A quote is only needed for volumes or configurations that are not listed.

Is the Certificate of Analysis free?

Yes. The lot-specific Certificate of Analysis is free on request. It does not ship in the box automatically, so ask for it with your order or afterward and we send it at no charge. The Safety Data Sheet ships with every order.

How fast do orders ship?

Orders ship in 1–2 business days from Taylor, Texas. Hazmat packaging, labeling and shipping papers under 49 CFR are done properly by trained staff, which is why we do not promise faster. If a specific order cannot meet that window, we tell you.

Do you charge a hazmat fee?

Some hazmat shipments carry a carrier surcharge because flammables, corrosives and oxidizers move under federal hazardous-materials rules. When one applies, it applies, and our hazmat shipping and delivered-cost guides explain where the cost comes from.

Do you serve large companies as well as small ones?

Yes. The same account can take a single lab bottle and a 330-gallon tote, and most of the catalog is offered in drums. Subscribe & Save covers recurring deliveries every one to five weeks with no minimum commitment.