RE: How to start a lab when funds are tight
Recently, Nature published an article entitled, “How to start a lab when funds are tight” by Elie Dolgin. We’re always excited to see more attention on the importance of comparison shopping for scientific research and supplies.
The article mentions, parafilm, which is used in nearly all research labs, from the article, “On Amazon, a $100 roll of paraffin film sells for around $25.” We mentioned lab shopping on Amazon in the past and it’s nice to see them emerging as a competitive vendor. However, the data from Lab Spend is showing that researchers are paying on average $22 per a roll, which is a 12% savings.
Price Distribution, Parafilm, Catalog Number PM996:
The data shows that some labs are paying under $14 per a roll which is about a 45% savings from $25 as mentioned in the article. A scientist or lab manager thinks that paying 75% from list price ($100 verse $25) is a great deal unaware that others are paying even less. This pricing difference largely occurs since the pricing of scientific products is not transparent, which we are fixing. Also it is time consuming for researchers to comparison shop and contact sales reps.
The article mentions Paul Bracher using negotiating tactics with sales reps. Paul was purchasing a mass spectrometer that he didn’t need it right away. Contacted a number of vendors with his pricing and waited. Months later, a sales representative offered the instrument for almost as low a price as Bracher had initially offered. Negotiating matters, mass spectrometers can easily be more than $100,000 therefore he likely saved tens of thousands of dollars.
This line from the article made me smile…
“Besides, there’s often no need for aggressive negotiation tactics; most suppliers will accommodate reasonable requests to secure the business of a newly hired faculty member, notes Lisa Witte, president of Fisher Scientific, a lab-supply company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.”
Of course a person in sales is going to tell you not to negotiate aggressively with them. We see the best method is to attain multiple quotes, which is why at Lab Spend, product requests are sent to multiple manufacturers and distributors. It will also be interesting to see if companies like Amazon will make negotiating obsolete by listing a competitive price for their products.
The article goes on to mention the New Lab Start-Up Programs offered by Fisher, MilliporeSigma and VWR offer something similar so new PIs don’t have to negotiate. We often come across labs that are in a so called ‘special program’ such as New Lab or Academic pricing, please actually compare the prices and wary of them changing. We disagree with this approach and as an experiment (hey, we’re scientists) take the new lab pricing and email your sales rep. asking for 10% less on 5 items. Although 10% may not seem like a lot on smaller products, it can add up as most new labs have start six figure start up budgets. Also search for products on Lab Spend which has a pricing search engine to help you know if you’re getting a fair price.