The push is on to return workers to offices across the country. Both commercial and government entities are exerting pressure to persuade currently remote employees to come in from the field, at least three days a week and in many cases full-time.
That puts janitorial and sanitation workers in the spotlight once again. Offices that have sat vacant since the pandemic first spread in 2020 again will have to be regularly cleaned and sanitized.
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.
We often encounter confusion about different types of disposable gloves and which is the right choice for any given job.
A great example is “surgical gloves.” You may have heard or seen—in media coverage or TV police procedurals—a criminal said to be wearing surgical gloves while committing a crime, whether it’s a bank heist or (shudder) a serial killer at work.
As an industrial distributor, you probably get a few questions about disposable gloves.
If you’re comfortable answering them, terrific! That makes you a leader of the pack (vroom, vroom) and sets you up for lots of success. Gloves can be a lucrative addition to your business.
After gloves go through the production process—formers dipped in solution, dried in high heat, rinsed in a chlorinated solution (in the case of latex), dried again—their interior needs to be finished.
This process makes it easier to pull on and remove gloves. Without interior finishing, gloves can stick to skin and cause a struggle to get them on or off.
Distributors who’ve been selling disposable gloves for a while understand the quirks of the market. To a distributor who’s new to the business, though, starting a profitable glove-selling program might seem a bit daunting.
We frequently get questions about getting started. What follows are the top 3:
Every distributor knows that happy customers lead to greater revenues. Of course, there are several nuances when it comes to selling disposable gloves, such as having the right product info, helping customers try out the product, and asking the right questions to identify the correct needs.
Our distributors frequently encounter end-users who are buying the wrong gloves for their intended purpose. Many are predisposed against using vinyl gloves under any circumstance, even when they deliver better-than-expected performance at a lower price. Learning as much as you can about your client’s needs can help you put your glove expertise to good use.
While orange and green are popular colors for nitrile disposable gloves—especially when they feature Raised Diamond Texture—AMMEX has over the last decade-plus sold more black than any other color.
Why? Because there is something universally appealing about black gloves. From an aesthetic point of view, they convey a sense of authority, that the wearer means business. On a practical level, they conceal grease, grime, and dirt to maintain a professional appearance. And if we’re talking about fashion sense, well, nothing says cool like basic black.
In these make-or-break times for restaurants, cleanliness has never been more important. And you can’t have a truly clean restaurant without disposable gloves.
Food and beverage sales in the restaurant industry are projected to total $789 billion in 2021, up 19.7% from 2020. That’s an encouraging turnaround, considering that during the pandemic the industry has lost nearly $300 billion in sales.
On June 1, AMMEX ended the practice of glove allocations. We made our entire inventory equally available to all distributor partners on a first-come, first-served basis.
Allocations had grown out of supply shortages created by the coronavirus, which wreaked havoc on the disposable glove market for more than a year.
