Apple also scored several high-profile deals with school districts for volume purchases of the laptops.

A spokesman for Matzel & Mumford said volume purchases enabled them to have "competitive pricing."

When you are researching this information, determine what your lead time will be for the initial order, reorders and volume purchases.

The hotels say that the payments originate as rebates on volume purchases and that the money belongs to them.

Silk purses for presentation of gift jewelry, or for traveling and storage, cost $2.50 or $1.50, with a discount on volume purchases.

It offers discounts for volume purchases.

This trend of passing costs to the public could be reversed with institutional volume purchases.

There is a well- developed market for such bulk purchases of hotel rooms, since hotels are willing to take less money in return for a volume purchase.

Discount rates are available for large volume purchases.

Some buy blocks of rooms at the beginning of the year, and thereby use volume purchases to pass savings along to travelers.