From my N95 vendor perspective, things seem a lot better than we were seeing back in April/May. Heartbreaking crazy calls from the medical world have basically tapered off. The government sector seems better, too - various counties in the northeast have been laying in stockpiles to prepare for a second wave and election boards have reported to me that they are well stocked on PPE and signage for the general election.
Nonetheless, demand/interest is still high. We've been running a waitlist for non-medical NIOSH N95's that we aren't getting until December. Just yesterday, we got in our first shipment of new NIOSH N95's from a vendor that quite literally just opened a factory in Paterson, NJ. The company is brand new (ribbon cutting at the factory was less than two weeks ago), so they have no track record at all, however given the made in USA imprimatur, NIOSH-approval, and current supply, they charge a premium price for these. As a result, we are reluctantly asking $5 each just to make a modest profit, more than double what we charge for our (unavailable) regular ones. For perspective, the list price on many common 3M styles is well below $2 each.
I waited until these physically arrived to put them on sale or announce them publicly. While we had sent out an email to a few dozen waitlist folks to give them a heads up, I thought that $5 price would put people off. We even broke down packs so folks could try 2 or 5 masks before committing to a full box (50 masks) because we make these items non-returnable. I expected significant price resistance. Boy was I wrong on that. A small flood of orders for 5 packs and boxes came right in. Strong demand even at this price - I am trying to figure out how much of this is the made in US vs immediate availability vs our explicitly offering them to the general public on this round (we were vetting for essential use previously).
BTW, here's why we decided to drop the essential use screen on this round of sales. The masks we carry are not FDA-approved and are therefore not considered "surgical". Export of N95's and N99's had been restricted under a FEMA final rule that was partly expired on August 10. See
https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2020-17467.pdf On August 10, FEMA took
non-medical N95 and N99's off that list, citing ample supply. Some highlights from this document; red text my emphasis:
This info is a bit dated, but still impressive. The surgical-rated mask shortage is wild, but the gloves shortage is crazy. Everyone asks about gloves when they call. On the good news side, we are expecting prices to start coming down in early 2021 for N99/N95's, barring a catastrophic escalation of the pandemic.
Finally, I've noticed that prices on ear loop masks (non-N95, non-NIOSH) have been collapsing due to ample supply from China. Of course, these provide only minimal protection, but at least they offer something when you don't have a better mask available.
Rob Toreki
