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Three Clocks Started When Your Supplier Raised Costs. Your Team is Watching Only One

The first two articles in this series looked at the cost-to-price lag — in isolation. As explained here in the conclusion, the full picture is bigger: a single vendor cost increase actually triggers three separate clocks, and most distributors are watching only the first one.

September 2, 2026

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Editor’s Note: Welcome to “The Hidden Majority” — a recurring column from MDM authored by one of our top contributing writers, Nelson Valderrama. This series is all about providing thought leadership and industry analysis geared for small- to mid-sized distributors, which comprise the vast majority of the wholesale distribution landscape. Leveraging the latest quarterly Baird-MDM survey data, Nelson dives into the numbers and commentary to identify trends and takeaways that apply to SMBs in the industry. This column is delivered as a three-part series each quarter. This edition is the second…

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