The first approach that is used by penal institutions, when procuring catering supplies, is the one where they simply sent their trusted agents to shop for the necessary supplies on their behalf (in nearby, ordinary retail outlets). Generally, if the procure involves petty supplies, this first approach is the best anyone can choose, other approaches would all be bad choices. Essentially, observing other approaches one can easily realize that they take a longer time to be completed, thus being inefficient whenever it comes to shopping for petty products. There are various cases when the best solution is simply sending someone to a local store to buy the necessary supplies.
That approach may not yield the best prices, but then, it saves a lot of time (and time can be of great essence in some instances). The decision to use or not to use the above method strictly relies on the prices of the required products as well as the level of urgency for them. The second approach is based on asking vendors to quote the best prices they can. This is why this approach will be used all the time by penal institutions . The next step must always be to go through all the received quotations.
The next step is when final orders are sent out to vendors, because every vendor's offers have already been checked and penal institutions realized who gave the best quotes. In the majority of cases, one vendor will give prices that are a lot better than competency, thus remaining the only selected vendor. The final decision in giving the order to more vendors or a single vendor must only be taken after various aspects have been checked and taken into consideration. Some cases involve supplies that are numerous and all different. These occurrences often involve spreading the order to multiple suppliers.
In other cases, when there are only a couple of needed supplies, penal institutions may take risks and give the order to a single supplier. Tenders can also be of real use to penal institutions and this is why the third way focuses on finding tenders who can offer the best commercial catering supplies services. The main idea is to have a lot of business people invited, giving them the opportunity to prove themselves efficient. The prize is big for tenders, as the 'winners' will obtain future orders for the supplies needed by the penal institution in case. The penal institutions must make sure that tenders can really supply the required items, so they ask them to create tender documents and fill in pre qualification forms. They also have to present how and why they could provide this service on a long term basis.
All tenders have to provide the best offers: the best prices for the best supply terms. Their respective orders are then supposed to be carefully compared (typically by entities known as tender committees), and decisions made on whom to award the tender to. The trader who wins a tender normally has assurance of some long-term business comfort: like where they can continue supply the institution with the items in question for a whole year. Traders can't later change the prices that were presented while bidding. This is one of the main conditions requested by penal institutions.