Where the
world gathers for metal finishing
Q&As since 1989


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How to search for direct manufacturers through the web

I need to know where I could find different suppliers for different kinds of medical products - most of results coming to me in google or search engines are Commercial directories which don't allow me to directly contact the manufacturers.

I always need technical advice where intermediate commercial companies don't find financial benefits for theirselves. How can I find manufacturers directly by category, something like Yellow Pages.

Mohamed Hassan
Research - Cairo, Egypt
2005

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In some cases companies are just not set up to directly distribute their product around the world. They may not know the tax laws, the packaging requirements, the shipping and customs regulations. That makes it different than the Yellow Pages, which tend to serve local needs more than global needs. It may not be practical to arrange to ship one package of needles from the factory in Singapore to an individual doctor in Egypt. "Middlemen" are often a practical necessity. But the issue of getting technical advice in our changing world of ever-reduced customer service is a serious problems for all of us, and we wish you luck with it!

It is right to object to any inconvenience and higher costs the middlemen may cause, if they do, but please don't resent financial benefits on principle. It is easy to think that the web is "free" because it is costing you nothing, but there are real costs associated with it that you are just passing along, and someone along the line eventually pays them for you.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2005