Purchasing is quite old in the list of economic operations, still it is relatively new as a subject in our field of study or as a discipline in our respective institutions. In the old days, most settlements i.e villages and towns were self dependent, but wars exposed people to acts, traditions and products of other individuals.
When wars ended trading (buying and selling) started. People, individuals sought what they lack from the neighborhood with the fundamental rules of exchange that satisfied the wants to maximize satisfaction of human wants and enhanced the standard of living.
Beyond this, technological enhancement leading to mass production and organizational interest, the emphasis moved to profit making and thus the need for specialization in more sophisticated ways of exchange. Professional purchasing started with the need to compete profitably through organizational integration and to care for the people income that goes into purchasing or goods and services.
Initially, it was made known to be a single routine job that can be joined along with other operations and services. Like any other subsystem within a system, the level of sophisticated of organizational purchasing in any area is dictated by level of development in that area.
These are types of purchasing;
Buying and Resale;
Buying for resale are carried out by those buyers who are buying goods and services for resale; or for buying for facilitating the resale of other goods in the industrial or ultimate consumer markets.
Purchasing For Immediate Use
This is an important source if requisition that's arises from outside the stores department. These materials as perishable goods are bought for immediate consumption or use.
Purchasing At Auction Sales
Auction represents still another source of disposing used materials. Although buying at auction is more risking than other source of buying used equipment because the auctioned equipment carry no warranty.
