How it works
Cooperative Purchasing Connection partners with local, regional and nationally recognized vendors with service areas covering Minnesota. All vendor agreements are the result of formal bids or negotiated contracts. By partnering with reputable vendors and combining the purchasing power of cooperative members, you receive a wide variety of high-quality products and services with excellent volume discounts.
SCSC members can immediately engage the services of a CPC vendor without worry about Minnesota’s procurement laws. Transacting with a CPC vendor awarded through the sealed bid process saves members an estimated $6,000 in solicitation, hard and soft costs. CPC has over 3000 agencies and 117+ contracts with CPC vendors!
CPC Benefits
- CPC awards contracts based on member feedback, the discounts in price that vendors provide, a vendor’s ability to serve SCSC members, and additional member benefits!
- Express, CPC’s online marketplace, allows you to browse vendor products, compare pricing across contracted vendors, and transact with vendors directly or through many finance platforms.
- The award-winning CPC Team is made of up of friendly procurement professionals who are ready to help you with your cooperative purchasing needs! They love hearing from SCSC members!
How to purchase
CPC was designed to be convenient for members to use. Simply identify a preferred vendor and request to do business using the CPC contract. Finding the contract information for your preferred vendor is easy. Every CPC vendor has a corresponding profile page. Vendor profile pages list the vendor contract information, contract discount, and the contract number that should be associated with every order.
Express
For everyday purchases we created the Express Online Marketplace. Express was built with public procurement in mind. Buyers can search for products and compare pricing across contracts to identify the best value for their organization. Express has over 10,000 registered users and new products are added frequently. Click to learn more.
SCSC Members
Access to CPC’s portfolio of vendors is free to SCSC members and you were automatically registered with CPC when you joined.
Non-members
If you are not a member of SCSC but are a school, city, county, municipality or nonprofit you may still leverage CPC’s contracts at no cost. Please contact CPC directly to register to gain access to CPC’s contract portfolio.
Association of Educational Purchasing Agencies
Members of CPC receive another purchasing benefit from our membership with the AEPA. Twenty-eight states belong to AEPA. Their contracts are nationally bid and locally awarded which means members receive great discounts. All contracts meet state requirements.