By Jan Sears
The Press Enterprise
NEW YORK, NY — Employees who need supplies from Redlands’ central stores soon will be punching buttons on blue vending machines rather than taking their items off a shelf.
The City Council this week approved a contract with Fastenal to provide the city’s supplies, and the vending machines to dispense smaller items such as batteries, gloves, tools and lighting supplies.
The contract will save the city some $60,000 and will result in supplies being more readily available, Purchasing Manager Dana Abramovitz told the council on Tuesday, May 15.
The city’s central store is open only four hours a day, four days a week, Abramovitz said. Under the Fastenal contract, employees will be able to use the vending machines at any time, probably by punching in their employee numbers.
The city will be able to track the use of supplies and Fastenal will keep the machines stocked. Because the company purchases products in bulk, the supplies will cost less.
“The city is saving money by not buying stock in advance, and the vendor is making money through a little mark-up on the products,” city spokesman Carl Baker said. “We’re still getting our supplies at a little savings … because (Fastenal) negotiates in bulk for a lot of cities.”
Baker said until now the city has kept supplies on the shelf until they were needed. But some sat so long they outlived their usefulness, he said.
“We have floppy disks on the shelf. Who’s ever going to use those?” Baker said. “We have medical supplies for paramedics that have expired and can’t be used.”
The vendor will replace supplies as they are used and bill the city only for items that are dispensed.
The central store will be reorganized so that the vending machines can be in a common area that will be accessible over longer hours. Larger items, like signs and fire hydrants, will be stored separately.
Abramovitz said the new approach will provide “95 percent of the solution” to the city’s purchasing issues.
The central store will be reorganized so that the vending machines can be in a common area that will be accessible over longer hours.
Councilman Paul Foster complimented Abramovitz, a new employee who previously worked in New York City, “for bringing these ideas to our community. This is something that’s long overdue,” he said.
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