Speaking as a buyer of medical supplies: 1) kb calls up his rep at Henry Schein 2) rep says "hey how's tricks we got some caviwipes in how many cases do you want I need to know now" 3) kb sez "we can use two cases" 4) Rep puts kb down for two cases of cavi-wipes 5) Rep calls up Metrex, tells them to drop ship two cases of Cavi-wipes to kb 6) Metrex literally puts this box on a truck: If FEMA wanted cavi-wipes, they could sit outside of Metrex and seize every box. Or they could seize every box going to Washington. Or they could seize every box going Fedex rather than UPS, because Fedex goes to the West Coast while UPS goes to the East Coast. 7) Metrex tells Henry Schein that FEMA seized 400 cases of Cavi-Wipes 8) I call up my rep five days later because I"m busy, she's busy, and we weren't expecting the cavi-wipes immediately 9) Rep calls up Metrex, Metrex says "we had a bunch of shit seized by FEMA, we're still figuring out what" 10) Rep and Metrex figure out that my shit got seized by FEMA and tell me Note that this hasn't happened yet. But medical equipment isn't shipped like porn, it says right on the goddamn side of the box what's in it. The boxes go on pallets that are likewise labeled. So if there's a medical supply warehouse, every pallet says what's in it and where it's going. It's not rocket science.
So all FEMA has to do is jack the drop-shipper's shipment. Then everyone up and down the line gets fucked. I'm surprised to hear that medical supplies work on the drop shipping model. I'd have figured that market was pretty well run by organizations that own the whole logistics chain, once the stuff leaves China.