Case price vs. unit price
Also called: unit price · case price
Case price is what the supplier charges for the case; unit price is what one usable unit costs. Two vendors quoting the same case price on different pack sizes are not quoting the same price, and the difference is invisible until you divide.
Formula
Unit price = Case price ÷ (Units per case × Size per unit)
Worked example · Two quotes that look identical
- Vendor A — olive oil, $68.40/case, 6 × 3 L
- 18 L per case
- Vendor A unit price
- $3.80/L
- Vendor B — olive oil, $68.40/case, 4 × 4 L
- 16 L per case
- Vendor B unit price
- $4.28/L
- Vendor A is cheaper by
- 11.2%
Same case price, same product category, 11% apart. This is the entire argument for a normalised bid sheet.
Related terms
Pack size
How a product is packaged — units per case and size per unit. Changes to it are price changes in disguise.
Bid sheet
A side-by-side comparison of the same items across suppliers, normalised to a comparable unit price.
Price creep
Small, frequent supplier price increases that individually look ignorable and collectively remove several points of margin a year.
Catch weight
Items priced by actual weight rather than by a fixed case quantity — most proteins and cheeses.
Prime vendor agreement
A commitment to buy most of your volume from one distributor in exchange for better pricing and terms.