The Five Vendors Who Always Bid Within 5% Of Each Other

On 5 recurring annual signage contracts, the same 5 vendors (VEN-A through VEN-E) bid every time, the winner rotates in a strict round-robin — A, then B, then C, then D, then E — and every losing bid sits within 2.0-5.2% of the winner on every single contract. 5 comparable one-off contracts with unrelated vendors show a 10.0-44.4% spread instead. VEN-F also bid within 2% of a winner once, on one-off contract K6, but VEN-F never appears in the recurring group — one close bid on one contract isn't a repeated pattern.