Magid Glove & Safety Ordering Checklist: An Admin Buyer's Guide

I'm an office administrator for a 210-person facilities company. I handle ordering for PPE and job-site safety supplies across three locations—roughly $150,000 a year. I also manage the occasional site-fencing request, which is how I know that silt fence and cedar fence are not the same thing. This is the checklist I wish I'd had when I took over purchasing in 2020.

Most of my PPE orders go through Magid Glove & Safety Manufacturing because their catalog covers more than gloves—safety glasses, hard hats, respirators, first aid kits, and a bunch of other things. Magid Glove and Safety Manufacturing has one of the broadest PPE catalogs I've used, so I buy most of my safety items from one vendor. But a big catalog means more room for mistakes. If you're new to buying this stuff, here's what matters.

Five checks before you hit send. The first three are boring. The last two can save your budget.

Who This Checklist Is For

Use this if you're an office manager, facilities coordinator, or someone who just got handed the company's PPE purchases. If you're a safety engineer, you already know most of this. This is for the people who have to learn it while doing it.

Quick note: I'm not a safety consultant or a lawyer. I'm the person who signs the purchase orders. Everything below is from real orders, real mistakes, and one very awkward conversation with Finance.

Check 1: Confirm the Exact Product Code

Product codes look like nonsense until you break them down. Take the code Magid Glove & Safety GPD700-10. If you order that, someone at the warehouse knows exactly what to pick. If you order "the same thing we got last time," you might get a substitute that's not actually the same. The code is the contract.

In my first year, I ordered "gloves" without specifying cut level or size. The crew sent the box back before I even finished the paperwork. Now I check the code against the actual spec sheet. If you're ordering for a team, confirm the size range. A box of size 9s for a crew that wears 10s is worse than no gloves, because someone has to process a return.

Rule of thumb: If the supplier can't tell you what every character in the product code means, that's a red flag. Don't guess.

Check 2: Verify the Standards, Not Just the Brand

Safety products are regulated for a reason. When you buy PPE, you need to know the standard it meets.

• Gloves: ANSI/ISEA 105 for cut, puncture, abrasion, and chemical resistance.
• Safety glasses: ANSI/ISEA Z87.1.
• Safety shoes: ASTM F2413.
• General PPE requirements: OSHA 29 CFR 1910.132 and 1910.138.

Why does this matter? Because if an auditor asks, "it felt thick" isn't an answer. The standard or the test report is the answer.

Bottom line: A famous brand name is not a substitute for a spec sheet. A vendor that can explain the standard is a vendor who wants you to buy the right thing.

Check 3: Know the Difference Between Silt Fence and Cedar Fence

This one belongs on a safety-supply checklist because site safety includes the site itself. A building project can have both a silt fence and a cedar fence on the same lot, and they are not interchangeable.

Silt fence is a temporary sediment barrier. It's made of geotextile fabric attached to stakes. It keeps eroded soil from leaving the construction site and is part of stormwater and erosion control. Cedar fence, on the other hand, is a permanent wood fence used for privacy, boundary definition, or security. It looks great. It will not stop sediment.

I made this mistake once. I approved a requisition that said "fence" and the project manager meant silt fence. Another manager had separately asked me to price a cedar fence for the new parking lot. The supplier caught the mix-up before shipping. Not every supplier will do that.

So when a request crosses your desk, ask three questions: What is the fence supposed to do? Is it temporary or permanent? Who's installing it? If the answer sounds like erosion control, buy silt fence. If it sounds like privacy or security, buy cedar fence.

Check 4: Separate Line Items for Shipping and Freight

PPE ships in boxes. Silt fence ships in rolls. Cedar fence ships in panels or pickets. These are different freight classes, and they may arrive on different trucks.

If you lump everything into one line item, you'll have a hard time matching invoices to deliveries. I process 60-80 orders a year, and the orders that cause the most friction are the ones with mixed product types. Split them out: one line for PPE, one line for erosion control, one line for fencing. Your accounting team will thank you.

Also confirm the receiving address. A site with no forklift shouldn't be receiving pallets of silt fence. Ask whether you need a liftgate, a delivery appointment, or a driver who can hand-carry small boxes. It's a boring question, but it's a deal-breaker if you get it wrong.

Check 5: Is Pepper Spray Legal? Check Before You Order It

People search "is pepper spray legal" for a good reason: the answer is not the same everywhere.

Before you add pepper spray to an order, run through these four checks:

1. State law on possession and carry.
2. Local municipal rules. A state may allow it while a city restricts it.
3. Shipping restrictions. Some carriers and suppliers won't ship to certain locations.
4. Company policy. Even if it's legal, your organization may have rules about who can carry it and how it's stored.

I only started doing this after I ignored it. A shipment got held because the receiving state had different concentration rules than my own state. The vendor refunded us, but we lost a week and the security manager was not happy.

As of March 2025, state and municipal rules for pepper spray vary. Verify current requirements with your state attorney general's office or local law enforcement before placing an order. This isn't legal advice—it's procurement due diligence.

Also check age requirements and whether a permit or training is required. If the supplier's customer service can't answer those questions, that's a red flag. A decent supplier will point you to the law and ask you to confirm compliance.

Common Mistakes I've Stopped Making

Not every supply order needs to be hard. Most problems come from a few preventable mistakes.

Mistake 1: Confusing product names with product specs. "Cut-resistant gloves" can mean anything from light gardening gloves to high-cut-level industrial gloves. The spec sheet tells you which one you're getting.

Mistake 2: Assuming all vendors invoice the same way. Once, a vendor couldn't provide proper invoicing and Finance rejected $1,200 of the expense report. I ate it from the department budget. Now I verify invoicing capability before the first order.

Mistake 3: Skipping legal checks on security items. If it's pepper spray, body armor, or a restraint device, check the applicable law first. This is where a "quick order" can become a regulatory headache.

Mistake 4: Not keeping a procurement file for every order. Spec sheet, quote, PO, invoice, delivery confirmation. Save them all in one folder. When someone asks "what exactly did we buy?", you should be able to answer in two clicks.

The Final Checklist (For Real)

Before you approve any safety supply order, make sure you can say yes to these:

• Is every product code verified against a spec sheet?
• Does each item meet the required standard?
• Is silt fence ordered when the site needs erosion control, and cedar fence ordered when the site needs a permanent fence?
• Are PPE, fencing, and freight separated on the PO?
• Is pepper spray legal in the receiving state and municipality?

That's it. The whole job is being a little less casual than the requests that come in. An informed buyer makes better decisions. I'd rather spend 10 minutes explaining options than deal with mismatched expectations later.