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Can’t Find an N95 Mask? This Company Has 30M That It Can’t Sell

nytimes.com

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Re: Can’t Find an N95 Mask? This Company Has 30M That It Can’t Sell

#71

Post by lloydarmbrust »

pembrook wrote: post #16

> These businesses must overcome the ingrained purchasing habits of hospital systems, medical supply distributors and state governments. I’m guessing this is the real crux of the problem. They’re trying to sell to some of the most glacial organizations on planet. The bigger the organization, the slower it moves. Purchasing cycles can take anywhere from 6 months to YEARS if you’re talking big business or government. T…

I don't agree with this. I run ArmbrustUSA and can make about 1MM masks per day, and we started at the same time as this company.

I think they are just bad at sales.

We have government and hospital contracts. But, we are really good at sales. My team is really good at sales. Previously, My President and head of sales ran a medical sales division at a company with 300 sales people. We have about 17 sales folks. And we wouldn't be thriving without that team.

They also might not be great at manufacturing.

There stuff is really expensive. They are selling an ASTM Level 3 mask for $37.5 + $8 Shipping! That's $0.90 a mask delivered.

https://shop.demetech.us/collections/surgical-mask-astm-leve...

I can buy a Chinese made ASTM Level 3 masks delivered for $0.18 FROM CHINA.

How can they win charging 5 times more? Because "America"? That argument is many a 3x multiple :)

If I were to guess by looking at all their photos, it looks they have a very manual process for making masks and packing masks. We've had to semi automate the packaging process to survive (which no one else has done). When we fully automated it later this year we will be able to sell our masks much much cheaper than China can.

Our masks sell between $0.20 - $0.59 which is still too high, but all of our margins go directly into investing in the product.

Re: Can’t Find an N95 Mask? This Company Has 30M That It Can’t Sell

#72

Post by Squarex »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #39
morsch wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh, FFP2 masks are now available for 1-2 EUR here, individually packaged, and less in packs. They're sold everywhere, from discount supermarkets to pharmacies (where they're a bit more expensive). Of course, prices were much higher a couple of months ago.

Where is that? In Austria they're in abundance at every supermarket for 59 cents.

In Czechia we got KN95s for like 35 cents. Altough proper FFP2s are for atleast 1.5 euros.

Re: Can’t Find an N95 Mask? This Company Has 30M That It Can’t Sell

#73

Post by mschuster91 »

whalesalad wrote: post #57

This guy isn’t hustling as hard as he should be. If you can’t get deals because of the old boys club of buyers and suppliers you gotta do some guerrilla marketing. Learn which hospitals are struggling with masks. Lease a bunch of U-Haul/Ryder trucks and fill them with masks. Park them in front of the hospitals with massive banners on the side: “50,000 made in USA n95 masks inside. Call 555-555-5555” Pretty soon you’l…

> Learn which hospitals are struggling with masks. Lease a bunch of U-Haul/Ryder trucks and fill them with masks. Park them in front of the hospitals with massive banners on the side: “50,000 made in USA n95 masks inside. Call 555-555-5555”

This is glorious.

Re: Can’t Find an N95 Mask? This Company Has 30M That It Can’t Sell

#74

Post by HelloMcFly »

Semaphor wrote: post #47

Is there still a shortage in the US? Here in Germany (we need surgical masks or (K)N95/FFP2 masks to go to the store or for public transport) they have been available easily for a while. Prices for Made in Germany ones were (and are) high, but getting Chinese-made masks shipped from EU or German warehouses was easy, and now one of our discounters (Lidl) started selling them for 0.88€ ($1.07) per piece. I bought 20 FF…

It's quite easy to get KN95 (even ones approved by FDA and tested by CDC) and KF94 (same). N95 and N99 are not as easy come by, but I think people fixate on those a but to their detriment. My Powecom KN95 and Dr. Puri KF94 are far, far, far superior to any N95 mask I've ever had in the way it seals my face, and their effectiveness is similarly good (https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npptl/respirators/testing/NonNIOSH...).

Re: Can’t Find an N95 Mask? This Company Has 30M That It Can’t Sell

#75

Post by vegannet »

whalesalad wrote: post #57

This guy isn’t hustling as hard as he should be. If you can’t get deals because of the old boys club of buyers and suppliers you gotta do some guerrilla marketing. Learn which hospitals are struggling with masks. Lease a bunch of U-Haul/Ryder trucks and fill them with masks. Park them in front of the hospitals with massive banners on the side: “50,000 made in USA n95 masks inside. Call 555-555-5555” Pretty soon you’l…

> you gotta do some guerrilla marketing

Like getting a piece in the nytimes?

> Or start selling direct to consumer using marketplaces like Amazon.

Per the article, most consumer destinations ban any mask advertising because of scalping.

Re: Can’t Find an N95 Mask? This Company Has 30M That It Can’t Sell

#76

Post by johnchristopher »

lloydarmbrust wrote: post #71
pembrook wrote: post #16

> These businesses must overcome the ingrained purchasing habits of hospital systems, medical supply distributors and state governments. I’m guessing this is the real crux of the problem. They’re trying to sell to some of the most glacial organizations on planet. The bigger the organization, the slower it moves. Purchasing cycles can take anywhere from 6 months to YEARS if you’re talking big business or government. T…

I don't agree with this. I run ArmbrustUSA and can make about 1MM masks per day, and we started at the same time as this company. I think they are just bad at sales. We have government and hospital contracts. But, we are really good at sales. My team is really good at sales. Previously, My President and head of sales ran a medical sales division at a company with 300 sales people. We have about 17 sales folks. And we…

> When we fully automated it later this year we will be able to sell our masks much much cheaper than China can.

Is not shipping from China to the US a big part of the cost savings ?

Re: Can’t Find an N95 Mask? This Company Has 30M That It Can’t Sell

#77

Post by josefresco »

lloydarmbrust wrote: post #71
pembrook wrote: post #16

> These businesses must overcome the ingrained purchasing habits of hospital systems, medical supply distributors and state governments. I’m guessing this is the real crux of the problem. They’re trying to sell to some of the most glacial organizations on planet. The bigger the organization, the slower it moves. Purchasing cycles can take anywhere from 6 months to YEARS if you’re talking big business or government. T…

I don't agree with this. I run ArmbrustUSA and can make about 1MM masks per day, and we started at the same time as this company. I think they are just bad at sales. We have government and hospital contracts. But, we are really good at sales. My team is really good at sales. Previously, My President and head of sales ran a medical sales division at a company with 300 sales people. We have about 17 sales folks. And we…

You guys are so good at sales, your N95's are sold out :( https://www.armbrustusa.com/products/pre-order-n95-mask-10-p...

"If we do not get approval, you will get your money back. You can also cancel at any time."

What does this mean? Are they sold out or are they waiting on government approval? Not very confidence inspiring.

Re: Can’t Find an N95 Mask? This Company Has 30M That It Can’t Sell

#78

Post by josefresco »

I recently ordered N95 masks from http://clinicalsuppliesusa.com/ (no affiliation)

I actually didn't know they were even available, after being told by officials to use cloth masks for 10+ months I stopped looking. I was surprised how easy and available they were.

EDIT: As others have pointed out their website is down. It was working as recently as 1 month ago. Sorry!

Re: Can’t Find an N95 Mask? This Company Has 30M That It Can’t Sell

#79

Post by MockObject »

josefresco wrote: post #78

I recently ordered N95 masks from http://clinicalsuppliesusa.com/ (no affiliation) I actually didn't know they were even available, after being told by officials to use cloth masks for 10+ months I stopped looking. I was surprised how easy and available they were. EDIT: As others have pointed out their website is down. It was working as recently as 1 month ago. Sorry!

I go there and I see

"Only one step left! To finish setting up your new web address, go to your domain settings, click "Connect existing domain", and enter: clinicalsuppliesusa.com"

Re: Can’t Find an N95 Mask? This Company Has 30M That It Can’t Sell

#80

Post by ardy42 »

josefresco wrote: post #78

I recently ordered N95 masks from http://clinicalsuppliesusa.com/ (no affiliation) I actually didn't know they were even available, after being told by officials to use cloth masks for 10+ months I stopped looking. I was surprised how easy and available they were. EDIT: As others have pointed out their website is down. It was working as recently as 1 month ago. Sorry!

> I actually didn't know they were even available, after being told by officials to use cloth masks for 10+ months I stopped looking. I was surprised how easy and available they were.

Your link doesn't work anymore, but KN95-style masks have been quite readily available for at least 6 months now, if not more. Though most of them seem to be of iffy quality/fit in my experience. Sometimes they're marketed at N95, but I'm thinking that's usually fraudulent mislabeling.

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