Often to purchase from Wholesale Restaurant Supply houses, one has to own or represent a business such as a Restaurant. As such you are eligible to forego paying tax on purchases because you later tax your own customers. But in the Cash & Carry stores of the bigger Food Service companies, they often open up the stores to non-businesses, too. Non-profits that hold fund-raisers such as Spaghetti Feeds and such are also eligible to purchase tax free in such Cash & Carry stores. In all cases, they are required to provide their Tax ID number every time they make a purchase, of course.
I do believe that as a Soap Maker who sells (if you do sell), you may also qualify as a customer for wholesale supplies in the same way (for oils you will use in soaping) if you have a business license with a Tax ID number and so forth. Opening an account in order to buy supplies in bulk and to save having to pay double tax certainly is worth it in the long run.
LA Fountain states on the website it is Cash N Carry and no membership is required.
Pelican does require a customer account, but as I said, it is well worth it if it saves you money in the long run. The account application is on their website.
I like Cash & Carry stores. When we had a restaurant we had our supplies delivered so didn't need to use the Cash & Carry stores that much. Since closing the restaurant, however, I have noticed that but the numbers of Cash & Carry stores in my area have dwindled and before that the hours of operation dwindled.
I apologize for my off-topic post, but it is in response to the past 2 or 3 posts in the thread.