Team Up in Making Your Purchases

Anheuser-Busch InBev and PepsiCo recently announced that the two companies will be doing joint purchasing. They say the objective is to save money. Well, if industry behemoths like these truly believe that teaming up to make purchases can further enhance profitability, what does it mean for your purchasing operations?
     Chances are you're already doing cooperative buying, or have at least looked into it. The Federation of Pharmacy Networks, The Doneger Group, IGA, Orgill, and countless numbers of business format franchisers all aim to negotiate volume discounts from vendors for supplies central to providing the core products and services of the participants' individual businesses.
     But the Anheuser-Busch/PepsiCo endeavor is about something else. At this point, they're not talking about joint purchases of the commodities they each use to produce their respective beverages. Instead, the purchasing staff from each company will be collaborating in obtaining items that range from maintenance supplies & services to travel & facilities to information technology hardware.
     With what goods and services would it be profitable for you to expand the extent to which you are already joining with another retailer or retailers to make your purchases? And what would need to happen for this teamwork to be successful? For one thing, in teaming up with other retailers, you'll want to attend to what the laws in your geographical area say about avoiding illegal restraints of trade. This could determine how much and what sorts of information about your business operations you're allowed to share with each other.
     But once you've accommodated that, the major adjustment is psychological: How comfortable will you be in sharing the information? Even though the government will want to see you and your purchasing partners as marketplace competitors, in what areas of cooperative buying will you be able to see them as teammates?