Watch for glove sellers pushing "seconds" on you

Have you been online searching for disposable gloves? Of course you have. Do you know that oil and latex prices affect the price of your glove. I bet most of you don't.

When there is a spike in pricing of oil and latex, manufacturers will raise their pricing to cover their cost. In theory, many importers and distributors could either eat the cost, which will cost them bottom line issues OR pass the cost to the next guy down the line, which is not a good option in a competitive market. They could also "reject" the price change which will put the onus back on the manufacturer.

The compromise, unfortunately, is that the "cost" is passed down to the end user. What does that mean? A lot of times, manufacturers will send lesser quality gloves at the same price to the importers. In some cases, this can be "seconds" (gloves that are not of top quality), it can be a reduction in the glove thickness or whatever money saving ideas the manufacturer comes up with. Some times, the importers know about it, sometimes they don't.

So watch out when you buy disposable gloves next.