Walking into the supply house works. It's fast, the relationship is already built, and for a small, familiar job it's often the right call. It's also, structurally, a single quote — whatever that counter person's price is today, taken or left.
What an RFQ actually buys you
Sending the same materials list to several distributors as a request for quote turns one price into a comparison. On a small job the spread might not be worth the wait. On a large materials order, even a modest percentage difference between bids is real money — and having it in writing also protects the price if the job's timeline slips.
A rough rule of thumb
- Small, urgent, familiar material list → walk in or call it in, don't wait on bids
- Large order, flexible timeline, or an unfamiliar material → send an RFQ and compare
- Anything time-sensitive mid-job (you're already on site and short a part) → the supply house wins on speed every time
The two aren't actually competing
The most efficient version of most businesses uses both — the counter relationship for the urgent and the familiar, RFQs for anything big enough that a comparison is worth the extra day. The material list from a takeoff can go either direction without being re-entered twice, which is the part that usually gets skipped when it has to be typed up by hand.