Usually, several distributors serve each area, each carrying papers from different mills. So if the paper you want is not available from one merchant, try others, or ask the mill who carries their paper. Mills are usually very protective of their merchant relationships. Generally, they will designate only one distributor in each geographic area to carry their paper, to eliminate competition between their own merchants. A few mills will contract with some customers directly, but then often ship the paper through their local merchants.
Customers get price breaks as they buy larger quantities of paper.
Their primary customers are printers, retailers and major corporations. They also sell to re-sellers, who may sell paper in small quantities. In the past, there was a healthy collection of regional paper merchants, with a few national companies such as Unisource and Nationwide. But national companies such as Xpedx are quickly buying up the regional merchants, who sometimes retain their historical name but become part of the national group. See Buying in Small Quantities .