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I'm not sure why you think they're trying to shaft you. CEF are one of the most well known nationally, and I'm not exactly a fan of their pricing or often lengthy wait at their counters, but they advertise all prices on a website.The funny thing is, I work in a few different areas and its the independent type wholesalers that are usually the best with pricing, I walk into them with a fear that I'm going to get shafted but they always seem to treat you great, I managed to get a Crabtree shower pull from an independant the other week and it was the cheapest one I've ever bought. Its the "chain" type wholesalers that always try to shaft me even though some of them already have my details as I use other branches so its not as if I'm a stranger to them.
Independents and just as the name suggests and free to price goods as they see fit. National wholesalers will have policies, to which staff are obliged to adhere. You and I might not understand or appreciate those policies, but it's likely that they benefit the business. Perhaps they feel it's only worthwhile taking the time to deal with small orders at list price, whereas sizeable accounts are profitable enough to warrant decent discounts? I honestly don't know but, at the risk of repeating the same points, they have significantly higher overheads than online operations and can't hope to match the buying power of large retail chains.
Spend your money where you see fit and don't think too much about how other business owners choose to run their operations.
We buy groceries in Lidl and Asda. I couldn't care less about the prices in more expensive supermarkets.