Can two solicitations be out on the street for the same requirements?

The situation that continues to come up is deciding to set aside requirements for GSA schedules and/or socioeconomic categories. There have been several times our group has determined to set aside and did not receive any or only received one unreasonable quote/proposal to end up changing the solicitation method causing delays to the procurement.   

I have been trying to figure out if I could solicit requirements as a GSA schedule procurement and in the solicitation add in the terms and conditions that we will except open market submittals if no quotes are received from GSA vendors.

Also, I am trying to figure out if I can set aside for socioeconomic WOSB, SDVOSB and Hubzone with the same concept and add that if no quotes are received from the set aside we will review and possibly award to vendors who do not fall in the socioeconomic categories.

Lastly, if I solicit on GSA schedules and believe it is in the best interest of the government to procure via open market, can I leave the GSA procurement open until the open market solicitation is complete? In essence, I wouldn't want to cancel the GSA procurement to find out the open market route was even worse.

I am reading about tiered/cascading evaluations which appears to be similar of what I am looking into but this process seems to only be permitted if the agency specifically authorizes it and is only utilized for negotiated procurements. 

This is primarily for Under SAT procurements.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

I'm not going to go through all your questions, but it sounds like you need to do more or better market research. If most of what you're buying are commercial items under SAT, you might have the problems you're describing once in a while, but if you're having those issues consistently, you need to look harder at whatever you're buying. Try posting a sources sought notice to both GSA's eBUY and FBO at the same time and see what you get before deciding.

Deaner,

Sources Sought are not typically practical as most if not all of my requirements are critical/urgent.  

I have reached out to my SBA rep and GSA schedule rep on these topics and both are unclear regarding my inquiries.

Appreciate the idea of performing more market research.

What types of items are you buying?

Ahhh this reminds me of a Tale of Two Markets, one of my favorite articles!!

http://www.wifcon.com/analysis.htm >> Market Research -- A Tale of Two Markets, by Christopher E. Harris, CFCM, CPCM

It should answer your questions, or at least give you a better understanding of what you are working with.