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I don't think that buying from wholesale vendors who don't accept retail traffic, is worth the time and effort it takes to get them to accept you.
You can get an alternate theory here. Please keep in mind that the author of this other article was writing from the point of view of a small cabinet shop owner. Anyone in business should avail themselves of the wholesale vendors. It is absolutely necessary to keep your overhead down and increase your profits. The Wood Miser also makes some excellent points if you do avail yourself of the savings with wholesale only vendors.
First, he is absolutely correct in terms of the business account being a necessary prerequisite. Sometimes wholesale only vendors will ask to see you business license or some kind of utility bill with your company name on it, but usually if you can pull out a check with the business name on it you are set. This is great, however, if you have a business. If you do not, it is really not worth your effort to try and make it look like you do. You don't want the IRS or some other organization getting hold of one of your checks then deciding that you owe them back taxes on some income you never actually earned.
The Wood Miser also points out that is you deal with the wholesale only people in person you should try to look as professional as possible, and ask your dumb questions over the phone anonymously. Excellent advice, but hardly necessary for the recreational crowd.
For the recreational woodwrights out there, I advise against using wholesale only vendors entirely. The Wood Miser suggests that some of the more "state of the art" tools and materials are only available at wholesale only places, but I think that if you look hard enough you will have no problem finding what you need elsewhere. The advent of the big orange home centers has led to an overall decrease in the price of wood and tools, and a general increase in their availability. It has also led many wholesale only vendors to start selling to retail customers.
Besides, it takes time for a business to cultivate a relationship with a wholesale vendor, time well spent if you have a business. For the recreational woodwright, the time it takes and the hassle are not worth it. The extra few dollars you may have to spend on a project aren't worth the trouble you could cause for yourself if you attract unwanted attention. For example; if your wholesale supplier gets audited and a list of the businesses that they deal with are released to the IRS, your name could come up. This is, however a worst case scenario. The number of projects you could complete with the time it would require to cultivate a relationship with a wholesale supplier alone makes the relationship not worth the effort.
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