#MarketingMinute / Why You Won't Be Getting Real N95 Masks Anytime Soon

How long before you can buy your own real N95 masks at your local retailer?

If you’re like most people these days, you’re finding it impossible (or at the very least extremely difficult) to purchase “real” (NIOSH certified) N95 masks, as well as hand sanitizer and antiseptic wipes, at what would be considered “normal” (pre-COVID-19) prices.  As you might imagine, this is because there’s a huge demand for these items and the supply is grossly inadequate to satisfy the demand.

(If you'd rather listen/watch instead, play the following YouTube video. Otherwise, keep reading below the video.)

But how long will it be before you have the opportunity to walk into your local Home Depot and purchase some N95 masks so that you don’t breathe in sawdust from that bathroom renovation you’ve been itching to complete during your stay-at-home order?  Well, don’t hold your breath waiting for those masks to appear on the shelves, at least not at normal prices.

Unfortunately for the regular public, N95 masks will likely not be available at normal pricing for the next 9 to 14 months. And there are three rational economic reasons for this.

Rational Reason 1: There is currently high demand from national and state governments and their orders for N95’s take precedence over the requests of your local hardware stores. As long as hospitals and clinics and virus testing facilities and retirement homes and anyone else on the list of priority organizations have an immediate need, they’ll get the supplies and you won’t. This push on demand will potentially last for another 2 or 3 or 4 months.

Rational Reason 2: Once those operational needs have been fulfilled, all of those organizations, as well as the national and state governments, will then take up all of the supply so that they can do the stockpiling that they so clearly did not do enough of previously. Again, their stockpiling needs will override your desire to have a few N95 masks on hand to do your remodeling, or to keep yourself safe in the event of another viral outbreak. Expect the stockpiling activities to last at least an additional 3 or 4 months after the operational needs are fulfilled.

Rational Reason 3: You, and your friends, and your neighbors, and your co-workers, and the rest of society will be doing their own consumer stockpiling of N95 masks, hand sanitizer, antiseptic wipes, rubbing alcohol, bleach, acetaminophen, Vitamin C, and yes, toilet paper. This will happen because you will not want to be caught in the same situation as you were this time, standing in a line six feet away from your fellow shoppers, waiting for a guy with rubber gloves to hand you a 4-pack of bathroom tissue because you had faith in those reports that all of the shortages would be wondrously restocked due to the miracles of modern supply chain management. And this push on demand? This will continue for another 4 to 6 months until each of us has our own closet full of doomsday supplies that would make the preppiest of preppers feel incompetent.

So there you have it. In today’s modern age of I-get-what-I-want-when-I-want-it, you will not necessarily get these supplies when you want them because the principles of basic economics are even more powerful than Walmart and Amazon and Alibaba combined. So you can feel justified in not getting that work done around the house for at least another year or so. And also, you can feel confident that all of these reasons are rational in that they are what people -- whether in government or industry or individual households -- feel in response to their own perceived needs and desires.

"Smart business leaders will always recognize the feelings and reactions of the public to be rational economic responses that should be considered when developing both strategies and tactics."

Whether in “normal” times or times of crisis, smart business leaders will always recognize the feelings and reactions of the public to be rational economic responses that should be considered when developing both strategies and tactics.

Have a safe and productive week!

Anthony

P.S. Join me over at YouTube (YouTube.com/AnthonyMiyazaki) for more Marketing Minute videos (about marketing strategy and tactics, brand development, effective communication, personal and professional branding, marketing yourself, marketing leadership, and whatever other relevant and related topics come our way).