a unique identifier, usually a number and sometimes the company's DUNS number, assigned by a customer for the vendor it buys from. Example: a grocery store chain buys Oreo cookies from Nabisco. For accounting purposes, the grocery store chain identifies Nabisco as Vendor #76091. One company can have multiple vendor codes. Example: Welch's Foods sells many different products - frozen grape juice concentrate, chilled grape juice, bottled grape juice, and grape jelly. Because each of these items is a different type of product (frozen food, chilled food, beverages, dry food) , they may also have a different buyer at the grocery store chain, requiring a different vendor code for each product line.