September is upon us, and with it, National Food Safety Education Month. It’s our annual reminder from the National Restaurant Association to help raise awareness among foodservice employees about proper handling of food.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tells us that every year, an estimated 1 in 6 people in the U.S. (or 48 million people) get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die from eating contaminated food.
Sustainability has evolved from buzzword to mantra to guiding principle for many. Operating from the notion that resources are finite and should be used with a view toward long-term priorities, it’s pure in intent yet can be polarizing.
It is a topic that often comes up in conjunction with disposable gloves. Long the subject of pressure from activists and start-ups intent on somehow reinventing the product, single-use gloves have by their very definition proven elusive as the target of environmental crusaders.
As we’ve mentioned in recent weeks, despite overall volatility in global markets, disposable gloves are in a good place.
The first half of 2023 has seen a number of factors pose challenges: threats of recession, interest rate hikes, persistent inflation, and a general sense of dread about the short-term health of the economy (which has, nevertheless, largely remained strong).
Myriad issues can influence the cost and availability of disposable gloves. These factors were of course magnified during the pandemic, where unstable prices and abrupt twists and turns of availability drove buyers and sellers alike to take any steps necessary to acquire product.
Regardless of how the market has changed post-pandemic, one thing that remains the same is that most gloves are sourced from across the world, specifically SE Asia and China. This is where the variables begin to stack up, from manufacturing costs to ocean shipping to domestic transport.
Fentanyl—a synthetic opioid pain reliever—is 50-100 times more potent than morphine and 30-50 times more potent than heroin. Fentanyl can be up to 100 times stronger than morphine. Illegal, synthetic versions of the drug lead to overdoses and expose first responders and law enforcement in the line of duty.
Often distributed clandestinely in other street drugs, fentanyl can lead to overdose deaths and serious health problems. In 2021, more than 71,000 people died of synthetic opioid overdoses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, up from 58,000 in 2020. Fentanyl overdoses are among the leading causes of death in the country for people ages 18 to 45.
Most customer-facing employees working for any industrial distributor—no matter how knowledgeable they are—are likely not as successful at selling disposable gloves. That’s no knock on anybody, just the truth that accompanies an unusual product.
Why? Because gloves are a strange commodity: Practically every business uses them, but sales reps who truly understand the nuances of the product or the market are few and far between.
When you partner with AMMEX, you get a lot more than a company selling you single-use gloves.
For one thing, you get to feel confident. And there’s a lot of benefit in that.
There is nothing worse than when you and your customers are waiting on products. Not only is it aggravating and heartburn-inducing, but it also can damage your business relationships.
Don’t put yourself through the headaches of wondering when your shipments are going to arrive. If you use vendors that are not well-connected with a network of factories, it can cause problems for keeping your customers supplied.
AMMEX has been selling disposable gloves for 35 years. Questions come up daily about how we help customers find the right gloves for their jobs.
Let’s face it: Disposable gloves are out of the ordinary compared with the staples that industrial distributors carry. We know how surprisingly challenging gloves can be to sell effectively; they have specific attributes and target specific needs, and there can be a learning curve in getting all the details just right. We have many tools that answer many glove questions for you. So instead of researching product specifics, you can focus on pitching, prospecting, and closing.
Over the past three years, three primary variables—production, transcontinental logistics, and U.S. market logistics—have combined to keep the disposable glove market dynamic and at times volatile. Their impact has been surprisingly outsized.
In 2020, the pandemic turned the market (and the world) upside down. Shortages and price increases added challenges at every level of the business. Manufacturers turned their production lines over to thin medical-grade gloves. As a result, industrial products—especially thick and heavy nitrile—became scarce and expensive.
