Where do I find wholesale suppliers for a small business?
Small business owners often struggle to find reliable bulk vendors on major platforms like Walmart or navigate complex local taxes, tariffs, and shipping costs. This makes it difficult to scale production without dealing with unprofessional suppliers, misleading minimum order requirements, or poor communication.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Buying in large quantities directly from standard retail websitesDid this help you?
- 2Looking for local options for suppliesDid this help you?
- 3Cutting ties with unprofessional vendors and asking online communities for firsthand supplier recommendationsDid this help you?
- 4Looking for suppliers on Facebook MarketplaceDid this help you?
- 5Looking into Alibaba and other online storesDid this help you?
- 6Measuring the trench and path, adding 20% for settlement and uneven ground, and rounding up to the nearest full yardDid this help you?
- 7Asking the yard if they use a small single-axle dump instead of a massive tandemDid this help you?
- 8Ringing a local excavator or drainage contractor to buy a load off their stockpile for cashDid this help you?
- 9Working with a local landscaper to source and deliver the materialDid this help you?
- 10Searching for gravel delivery on Facebook MarketplaceDid this help you?
- 11Searching through Instagram and WhatsApp-based suppliersDid this help you?
- 12Asking online communities for personal recommendationsDid this help you?
- 13Google local suppliers, call them, and ask for pricesDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Package costs are killing my small business.”source ↗
“I’ve looked into Alibaba and other online stores, but have not yet figured out how to take into account the true costs of shipping, plus the minimum order quantity (MOQ), and the possible variability in the quality of the product.”source ↗
“I'm starting a small jewellery business and I'm currently looking for reliable online wholesale suppliers/platforms.”source ↗
“Low MOQ / small-batch orders, since I'm just starting out”source ↗
“Ideally suppliers who allow mixed designs rather than requiring huge quantities of one design”source ↗
“I have a small business in London, ON. Looking for mini perfume wholesale supplier.”source ↗
“Found some chinese supplier charging me $280 for 100 units of mini perfumes but I don't know how to trust someone like that.”source ↗
“If someone can help me found a reliable supplier, that would be really helpful.”source ↗
“I’m searching for a reputable company that sells completely blank or empty advent calendars that businesses can fill with their own products and customize using their own graphic designers and printing company.”source ↗
“I recently contacted one supplier, but the interaction became unnecessarily rude and unprofessional after they misunderstood my question.”source ↗
“Do not use StudioKaroleen through F@ire. They are extremely unprofessional and don’t know how to answer simple questions I have screenshots.”source ↗
“I just want to find a place I can get good consistent quality blank cotton socks.”source ↗
“I live near nyc but I don’t know anything about specific places for small just starting out businesses there.”source ↗
“We are a small company that makes custom apparel. We are looking to expand and offer other items such as chenille patches off letterman jackets, embroidered items, and other school spirit items. Does anyone have any good wholesale companies they work with?”source ↗
“Where is the cheapest place we can buy plywood ? 9mm thickness. B&q seems expensive.”source ↗
“I am a home-based candle maker and was wondering about bulk vendors that sell on Walmart and is there possibly a section of Walmart that is for wholesale sellers that I am not aware of?”source ↗
“I was just wondering if anyone knows about this because I am looking at local options for a few of my supplies keeping in mind the taxes and tariff’s on wholesale amounts.”source ↗
“actually sourcing the materials is making my head spin, every yard I call has completely different pricing and half of them can even tell me when they could deliver.”source ↗
“still idk if these online things even account for how uneven the ground is back there.”source ↗
“Mostly just trying to avoid ending up with the wrong materials or some dump truck situation where they can’t get it where I need it.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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