When One Vendor Can't Do It All: Why I Stopped Asking My Elevator Supplier for Shower Caps

The One-Source Fantasy

It sounded efficient. I manage all maintenance and facilities ordering for a 120-person company—roughly $150,000 annually across 12 vendors. When I took over purchasing in 2020, I thought: Why not consolidate? Fewer contracts, less paperwork, better leverage.

Our biggest expense was thyssenkrupp parts for our elevator fleet—specifically the thyssenkrupp impulse elevator model. We ran three of them in our main building. The vendor relationship was solid, invoices were clean, delivery was reliable. So when the maintenance team needed shower caps for the locker rooms and a toilet fill valve for the ground-floor restroom, I called the same thyssenkrupp sales rep. And when someone asked how to block websites on Chrome for an employee policy update, I thought: They're a global engineering company, surely they can handle IT.

The Surface Problem: Chaos That Looked Like Convenience

At first, it seemed fine. The rep said they'd source everything. Two weeks later, three boxes arrived: the elevator parts (perfect), a bag of generic shower caps (wrong size, flimsy), a toilet fill valve that didn't fit our model, and a one-page printout titled "How to Block Websites on Chrome" that looked like it was copied from a 2015 blog post. The printout even had a Pantone color swatch in the corner—286 C, our corporate blue. It wasn't printed correctly; the color was off by at least a Delta E of 3, noticeable to anyone who cared.

I shrugged. Close enough. I gave the shower caps to the locker room. They lasted two days. The toilet fill valve leaked. The IT manager laughed at the printout.

The real trouble came when the invoice arrived: $240 for the shower caps (marked up 300%), $85 for the wrong fill valve (plus a $35 restocking fee when we returned it), and $50 for the printing.

The Deep Cause: Why We Fall for the One-Stop Shop Trap

It's tempting to think a single vendor can handle everything. The simplification error is real: we assume competence in one area transfers to another. But a supplier's core expertise—in thyssenkrupp's case, thyssenkrupp impulse elevator parts and industrial systems—doesn't magically extend to shower caps, plumbing fixtures, or IT support. To be fair, the rep never claimed they could. I assumed.

I get why people do it—administration is tedious, and managing 12 vendors feels heavy. But the 'one vendor for everything' advice ignores a crucial nuance: the transaction cost of vetting and correcting poor-quality secondary items. My experience is based on about 60 orders a year across 12 vendors. If you're a tiny company with one vendor, maybe it works. Our situation was different, and the calculus should have been different too.

The Real Cost: More Than Just a Funny Story

The vendor who couldn't provide proper invoicing for the shower caps cost us $2,400 in rejected expenses when accounting found the markup and incorrect line-item descriptions. I ate $75 out of our department budget for the restocking fee. The elevator maintenance team, meanwhile, was happy—their parts arrived on time. But the damage to my reputation with operations took months to repair.

And the printing issue? That printout for how to block websites on Chrome? It was so poorly formatted that nobody used it. We ended up paying an IT consultant $150 to write a proper guide. The Pantone color mismatch—286 C vs. what we got—was minor, but it showed the vendor had no business in printing.

"The vendor who said 'this isn't our strength—here's who does it better' earned my trust for everything else."

The Solution: Play to Each Vendor's Strength

I'm not 100% sure the exact split, but I'd estimate we wasted around $3,500 on that single attempt to consolidate. Now I do the opposite:

• thyssenkrupp for thyssenkrupp parts and elevator systems—they're the experts. I buy thyssenkrupp impulse elevator components from them without a second thought. Their inventory system is stellar.
• Shower caps and toilet fill valves come from a dedicated janitorial supplier who knows the brands and has proper warranties.
• How to block websites on Chrome—that's an IT vendor's job. We now have a policy written by specialists.

I've only worked with domestic vendors for these categories. If you're dealing with international logistics or a global office network, your experience might differ. But the principle holds: respect the boundary. A specialist who says 'this isn't our arena' is more valuable than a generalist who tries to be everything.

Granted, this approach means more purchase orders and more vendor relationships. But the hidden costs of wrong orders, rejected invoices, and internal frustration far outweigh the convenience of a single supplier. My rule now: trust your core vendors for what they're built for, and for everything else, find someone who eats, sleeps, and breathes that product. It's less sexy than a one-stop shop, but it works.