Monday, April 8, 2019

Incontinence Wear Services

Memory care facilities handle incontinence wear in several ways. It may be included in the overall apartment fee or a monthly charge for what is used is made. Either way, the resident need not worry about ordering and about running out of “product”. This is the lowest cost way of providing incontinence wear and with the least hassle.

Starting next month, memory care residents must provide their own incontinence wear. The corporate switch was to have each resident have an individual account with the former supplier. That changes billing from wholesale to retail plus shipping.

The two-hour meeting ended with free shipping, by all individual orders being shipped in one monthly shipment. A standing order, designed to never run out of product, is controlled by a phone call to skip a shipment when a surplus builds up.

Wipes, tabbed briefs for night, and underwear pull ups for day, were priced by the case. A case was estimated to last 12, 6, and 3 weeks, respectively for my wife. A surplus would be a full case on hand (for any product) at the time of the regular shipment. [Full cases are needed to span the time (one to three months) between regular scheduled shipments. This is not a monthly order system.]

I made two Healthy Kin online orders prior to the above meeting. The first was for all three items. The second order was just for pull ups.

                                                            Healthy Kin     Concordance
Attends wipes                                     $20.95             $30.00                         
Attends stretch briefs, large/X large   $48.95             $62.73
Attends underwear pull ups, X large  $35.95             $43.55
Total product first shipment              $105.85           $136.28
Shipping on $100 order                      10%                 free
Sales tax                                             none                8%
Ordering                                              as needed       scheduled
Shipping time                                      2 day               monthly 

This works out to be about a $30 fee to have a never-run-out service versus one that requires each order to be over a $100 for the most expensive size of incontinence wear. The fee would be much less for smaller people. A better perspective on the service fee can be obtained by comparing the price of individual items and the number needed per month from other sources.

Compare Per item in over $100 Order           Healthy Kin     Concordance
Attends wipes                                                 $0.04               $0.06               
Attends stretch briefs, large/X large               $0.56               $0.71
Attends underwear pull ups, X large              $0.71*              $0.84
* $0.82 single case order

Shipping Is a major expense. It was $10.95 on a Healthy Kin $105.85 order (10%) and $9.95 on a $35.95 order (28%). Concordance offered free monthly shipping. The cost is built into their retail price as it is with local stores.

A comparative summary follows from three local stores and several online sources. It is followed by the details of this summary.

This limited number of companies and products presents some idea of the options to be chosen from. The choice must include lowest price for a suitable product and delivered in a convenient service.

                                            THE SUMMARY

                                      Lowest Price L/XL and XL

From a store:  Tabbed Brief    Walmart          Assurance      $0.53
                        Pull Up            Walmart          Depend           $0.71

Online:            Tabbed Brief   Walmart          Assurance       $0.50
                        Pull Up           Healthy Kin     Attends            $0.69

                                           Over $100 Online

                        Tabbed Brief   Healthy Kin     Attends          $0.55
                        Pull Up            Healthy Kin     Attends          $0.69

                       Never-Run-Out Service, with Scheduled Delivery

                        Tabbed Brief   Concordance   Attends           $0.71
                        Pull Up            Concordance   Attends           $0.84

                                   Subscription Service with Discount

                        Tabbed Brief   Amazon            Attends          $0.67
                        Pull Up            Amazon            Attends          $0.74



You must either pay someone to run a never-run-out service or enlist a responsible person to make periodic purchases. Provision Living had such a person who saved residents considerable money and provided the flexibility to always have product available without concerning the person paying the rent. All companies have a convenient reorder service.

                                                   THE DETAILS

I picked out three local stores near Cedarhurst at Columbia. The first two are about a mile away. Pack price is the shelf price. The comparative single item price includes 8% sales tax.

                      L/XL Tabbed Briefs for Night Time Wear

Store               Description                 Pricing

Kilgore             Depend, 16 count       Pack   $!8.99  Each $1.28 
                        Adjustable Underwear

Walmart          Assurance, 32 count   Pack  $15.74 Each $0.49
                        Stretch Brief

                     XL Underwear Pull Up for Day Time Wear

Store               Description                 Pricing

Kilgore             Depend, 17 count       Pack  $18.99 Each $1.21
                        Fit-Flex

Schnucks         Depend, 15 count       Pack $13.99  Each  $1.01
                        Fit-Flex   26 count       Pack $19.99  Each  $0.83
                        TopCare, 16 count       Pack $11.99  Each  $0.81

Walmart          Depend, 38 count       Pack $24.87  Each $0.71

Walmart store pricing is equal to the order I made online to Healthy Kin. The problem with stores is that the product you need may be out of stock in the store at the time you visit it. Also the exact same product may be in more than one package, such as Depend Fit-Flex.

Old and New Package
A curious observation is that Depend supports stores rather than competes with them. This, I think, is the reason Depend has shelf space in all three stores. Also all three stores have different counts in their basic pack. This confuses the issue of their absorbance capacity; lower count used to mean higher absorbance capacity.

All three stores have a way to deliver:

Kilgore             $5.00 each order.
Schnucks         Uses Instacart.com for $3.99 each delivery.
Walmart          Ships directly to your address for free if the order is over $35.

This brings us to online shopping with an expected free two-day delivery, except for Concordance with scheduled monthly deliveries that prevent running out of product.

         L/XL Tabbed Stretch Briefs for Night Time Wear

Company         Description                 Pricing

Concordance   Attends, 96 count       Order  $62.73  Each $0.71
                        
Healthy Kin     Attends, 96 count        Order  $48.95 Each $0.55*
                        * (includes $10.95 shipping on $105.85 order, no tax)

Walmart          Assurance, 16 count    Order $9.88    Each $0.67
                                           32 count   Order $15.74  Each $0.53
                                           64 count   Order $30.54  Each $0.52
                                           96 count   Order $44.84  Each $0.50*                 
                        * (free shipping on over $35.00 order)

Amazon           Assurance, 32 count    Order $24.49   Each $0.83
(free shipping)                    96 count    Order $53.24   Each $0.60
                                          192 count   Order $107.19 Each $0.60

                        Attends, 96 count        Order $59.26    Each $0.67

                    XL Underwear Pull Up for Day Time Wear

Company         Description                 Pricing

Concordance   Attends, 56 count       Case  $43.55 Each $0.84*
(on account)   

Healthy Kin     Attends, 56 count       Case $35.95  Each $0.69
                        * (includes $10.95 shipping on $105.85 order, no tax)

Schuncks         Depend, 15 count       Pack $13.99  Each $1.27*
(Instacart)       Fit-Flex   28 count       Pack $19.99  Each $0.91
* (includes both 8% sales tax and $3.99 delivery) 

Walmart          Depend, 15 count        Order $11.48  Each $0.83
                        Fit-Flex   26 count       Order $17.76  Each $0.74
                                       38 count       Order $24.87  Each $0.71
                                       52 count       Order $33.80  Each $0.70*
* (free shipping only if over $35.00 order)

                        Attends, 14 count       Pack $10.21  Each $0.79

Amazon           Attends, 56 count       Order $38.51 Each  $0.74       
(free shipping)

                                              THE END

                                          5 APRIL 2019

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