E&I Members: How likely are you to recommend E&I Cooperative Services to a peer?
A study in the Economics and Business Journal (ECBIS) reported that 68% of U.S. school districts lose nearly a fifth of their non-payroll budgets directly to procurement inefficiencies, fragmented purchasing, and compliance gaps. That may not be a surprise to you, but here’s the big insight they uncovered: By consolidating platforms and using structured procurement strategies, academic institutions can cut up to 47% of purchasing waste and lower processing costs by 53%.
Finding efficiencies in the procurement process can yield big gains. That means taking a more holistic approach to purchasing, looking beyond the lowest price to include indirect costs. Every sourcing event and RFP, negotiation, purchasing, and payment process requires staff time and resources. In most cases, contract negotiation and purchasing approval require staff time and institutional resources. These costs become especially significant when many procurement teams have an increased workload but a smaller head count.
MRO and safety supplies are often overlooked as they don’t always rise to the level of major purchases, but they’ve become increasingly important as academic institutions struggle with aging infrastructure. Still, off-contract spend and procurement spread across a significant number of suppliers means institutions are not always getting the best prices and creating significantly more administrative work. That’s why so many colleges and universities are consolidating suppliers to streamline procurement and realize greater volume discounts, with many using a Grainger business account as their main source of MRO products, safety supplies, and facilities materials, and inventory management solutions. Utilizing Grainger services through a cooperative agreement with E&I Cooperative Services can produce significant savings and give you access to exclusive benefits.
Grainger is one of the largest distributors of maintenance, repair, and operations products, offering more than 1.7 million Grainger products in its catalog. For schools and universities, Grainger often functions as a single-source supplier for a broad range of operational needs. Rather than managing separate suppliers for every maintenance and safety category, institutions can consolidate many purchases through one provider to simplify procurement.
For most facilities teams, Grainger is a familiar name. Nearly every operating unit across campus uses some Grainger MRO products. Here are some of the most common ones.
Campus Function | Common Grainger Products |
Facilities Maintenance | HVAC parts, electrical supplies, plumbing components |
Custodial Services | Cleaning chemicals, paper products, sanitation supplies |
Groundskeeping | Outdoor equipment, seasonal maintenance supplies |
Safety Programs | PPE, safety footwear, visibility apparel |
Operations | Tools, storage systems, material handling equipment |
Athletics & Events | Safety supplies, facility maintenance products, operational equipment |
RESIDENCE HALLS | Maintenance supplies, cleaning products, repair materials |
There are also services available that go beyond just Grainger products, designed to help improve operations and simplify procurement.
Inventory management is a significant concern for many campuses, producing:
Grainger’s KeepStock program helps institutions manage frequently used inventory through organized storage systems, automated replenishment processes, and inventory visibility tools. For maintenance and facilities departments, this can reduce stockouts while minimizing excess inventory that ties up budget dollars.
Industrial vending machines provide controlled access to commonly used supplies while tracking inventory usage in real time. Educational institutions frequently use these systems for PPE, batteries, tools, gloves, and other high-consumption items.
Institutions can customize available items and set automatic reorder points in their Grainger business account to avoid running out of needed products.
Managing safety footwear programs across a large campus can also be challenging. Different employee groups often require different footwear specifications based on job responsibilities, and each employee needs different sizes.
Grainger’s footwear management programs help institutions standardize approved products, administer employee allowances, and simplify compliance requirements. And, then there’s the Shoemobile.
The Shoemobile is a mobile showroom that can visit campus facilities locations, allowing employees to receive professional fittings and select approved footwear onsite. The service helps improve employee participation while reducing returns and administrative burden.
Grainger commercial building supplies for MRO also support workplace safety initiatives through assessments and product recommendations designed to help align PPE requirements with workplace hazards.
Many educational institutions establish a Grainger business account to simplify purchasing and account administration, allowing authorized users to place orders, access reporting capabilities, and manage purchasing activity across departments.
This provides centralized billing and visibility to help you monitor spending more closely. Reporting tools help organizations identify spending trends, monitor category purchases, and evaluate supplier performance.
Once approved for credit, payment terms are net 30 days from the date of the invoice.
Because many educational institutions qualify for tax-exempt purchasing, establishing Grainger tax exempt status is an important part of procurement administration.
One challenge facing many schools and universities is maverick spending, and it’s especially common with MRO tools and supplies. Departments may purchase safety supplies, tools, or maintenance products independently using P-cards or local suppliers. While these purchases may seem small on their own, they make standardization more difficult and are harder to manage visibility. They can also prevent institutions from leveraging their total purchasing volume effectively.
The problem becomes even larger when these purchases accumulate into what procurement professionals call “tail spend”—a large number of low-value purchases spread across numerous suppliers. The common metric is that tail spend often represents as much as 20% of an organization’s total spending while being distributed across approximately 80% of its suppliers, creating significant supplier fragmentation and administrative burden.
Maverick spending compounds the problem because purchases occur outside approved contracts and procurement channels. Organizations can lose 10% to 20% of their negotiated savings through maverick spending as buyers bypass preferred suppliers and contract pricing.
When departments purchase independently, institutions often miss opportunities to consolidate spending, negotiate better pricing, and take advantage of contract incentives that are available through preferred procurement channels.
The impact extends beyond product costs. Every off-contract purchase creates additional administrative work, introduces new suppliers into the system, increases invoice processing requirements, and reduces the ability to analyze spending patterns. It also makes it more difficult to negotiate favorable pricing because institutional purchasing volume becomes fragmented across multiple suppliers.
Many buyers search online for promotional pricing, coupons, or discount codes before making purchases. While these tactics may lower the cost of an occasional order, they are not a sustainable procurement strategy for educational institutions. Retail discounts are temporary, inconsistent, and difficult to forecast — and they rarely beat your negotiated rates.
Educational institutions can maximize value from Grainger by following several procurement best practices:
Beyond contract pricing, resources like Grainger University offer free training on topics such as safety compliance, equipment handling, and inventory management, helping campus facilities teams build expertise at no added cost.
Cooperative purchasing has become an increasingly important strategy for educational procurement teams. Rather than conducting separate solicitations for recurring categories, institutions can leverage competitively solicited contracts that have already completed the procurement process.
Cooperative agreements typically reduce costs by 10-15% versus retail pricing, especially when you partner with E&I Cooperative Services. E&I represents more than 6,500 academic institutions as membersand negotiates significant volume discounts by consolidating purchasing power. Because E&I focuses exclusively on the education sector, E&I contracts often include terms more favorable to K-12, colleges, and universities, along with additional incentives.
Compliant cooperative agreements also help streamline your procurement process, often reducing cycle times by as much as 80% and reducing processing costs by 25-30%.
Educational institutions can access Grainger through E&I Cooperative Services Contract #CNR01496, offering access to tiered discounts across 32 product categories covering MRO, safety, facilities, janitorial, and hundreds of thousands of products.
A specialized core market basket includes many of the products most frequently purchased by schools and universities, providing deeper discounts on the most commonly used items. You can also work with a Grainger representative to create unique hot lists, identifying up to 1,000 campus-specific items that may qualify for customized net pricing.
Standard ground freight for catalog orders within the contiguous United States is prepaid and absorbed by Grainger in most cases. With 14 distribution centers nationally and 250 branch locations, many items are available for same-day delivery.
E&I’s Grainger agreement also offers exclusive financial incentives or additional discounts beyond what Grainger commercial customers may receive.
E&I Cooperative Services occupies a unique position within educational procurement. Unlike purchasing organizations that serve multiple industries, E&I is the only member-owned, nonprofit sourcing cooperative dedicated exclusively to education.
Today, more than 6,500 educational institutions have access to more than 265 competitively solicited contracts covering a wide range of operational, academic, technology, and facilities categories. Combined purchasing volume exceeds $3 billion annually, creating significant opportunities to negotiate favorable pricing and contract terms on behalf of members.
Perhaps most importantly, E&I membership is available at no cost and does not require a minimum purchasing commitment. Institutions can use contracts as needed while benefiting from procurement expertise, analytics, category specialists, supplier diversity initiatives, and strategic sourcing support tailored specifically to education. Eligible members may also qualify for annual patronage refunds based on purchasing volume, providing additional value beyond contract pricing.
Because E&I focuses exclusively on education, its contract portfolio and procurement services are designed around the unique challenges schools, colleges, and universities face every day.
What is Grainger and why do schools use it?
Grainger is a leading distributor of maintenance, repair, and operations supplies, safety equipment, janitorial products, tools, and facilities materials. Schools and universities use Grainger because it offers a broad product catalog, inventory management solutions, and support services that help keep campuses operating efficiently.
What types of Grainger products do educational institutions purchase most often?
Common Grainger products purchased by schools and universities include HVAC components, electrical and plumbing supplies, cleaning and sanitation products, safety footwear, PPE, tools, storage systems, and grounds maintenance equipment.
Can educational institutions establish a Grainger business account?
Yes. A Grainger business account can help institutions centralize purchasing, manage authorized users, improve spend visibility, and streamline invoicing and payment processes across multiple departments. If you already have a Grainger business account, you may be able to utilize the competitively solicited E&I contract with Grainger to achieve immediate savings.
How does Grainger’s tax-exempt purchasing work?
Eligible educational institutions can establish tax-exempt purchasing status by providing the required documentation. Once approved, qualifying purchases can be processed without sales tax where applicable.
How can cooperative contracts help schools and universities buy from Grainger?
Cooperative contracts provide access to competitively solicited agreements that can reduce procurement workload while supporting compliance requirements. Through E&I’s cooperative contract with Grainger, educational institutions can access contract pricing, inventory management solutions, and a broad range of MRO and safety supplies without conducting their own solicitation process.
What additional Grainger services are available?
Grainger services include KeepStock inventory management, industrial vending solutions, safety footwear programs, the Grainger Shoemobile, safety assessments, and other operational support services to help organizations improve efficiency and control costs.
Explore the competitively solicited Grainger contract through E&I. Simplify procurement, improve compliance, and reduce the total cost of facilities, safety, and MRO purchasing.