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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Real-time Market Basket Price Indexing for Office Supplies

Provide valuable insight into the cost of commonly purchased items.

(TEMPE, Arizona) August 4, 2009 — The concept of building "market baskets" to report prices for commonly purchased items is not new. In fact, CAPS Research has been publishing different market baskets of goods since 2005. What differentiates our market baskets from others is our ability to provide average and median prices for brand name items (specified by manufacturer and part number) and average and median prices of equivalent items that were purchased in lieu of the items specified.

Market basket price indexing reveals differences and identifies potential areas of opportunity for organizations. In the fifth market basket of goods report for office supplies, CAPS Research provides the average and median costs for 50 office supply items. Each of the 50 line items has a unique description for the actual and equivalent item costs of the market basket items as reported, and each item had a corresponding quantity used to normalize prices. Per survey instructions, prices exclude shipping or delivery costs. Participants of the Market Basket Program receive a comparative look at their data, alongside the aggregate data of other participants.

Note: To review the "Office Supplies Market Basket July 2009" visit the CAPS Research web site: http://www.capsresearch.org/publications/pdfs-protected/MBOfficeSupplies2009Metric.pdf

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CAPS Research is a nonprofit research organization founded in 1986 to provide leading research to our strategic-minded corporate sponsors and to the public. Our mission is to work in partnership with a global network of executives and academics for the discovery and dissemination of strategic supply management knowledge and best practices. CAPS Research is jointly sponsored by the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, and the Institute for Supply Management™ and Global 1000/Fortune 500-size organizations.

Media Contact:
Clare Donnalley
Marketing Manager
CAPS Research
Voice: 800/888-6276 extension 3007
cdonnalley@capsresearch.org

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