Electronics manufacturing company Adafruit has seen a 90% plunge in sales during the coronavirus pandemic, but it's been able to overhaul its operations to build medical supplies for crisis relief
in 2005 to teach people how to hack and build electronics. Without taking a dime in funding, the company has since expanded into a one-stop shop for makers and hobbyists, selling equipment like Raspberry Pi batteries, cables, LEDs, sensors, and wearables, while doing in-house electronics repairs as well.
Just like that, the company started building and shipping goods like face shields, sensors for medical devices, digital thermometers, oximeters for taking finger pulses, and thermal cameras for fever screening. New York City officials have deemed it an "essential service," meaning that Adafruit can continue operating even as other businesses shut down.
Since Adafruit is currently focused on delivering medical equipment and PPE, it's relying on partners and distributors to send its usual products to customers that order them. That's not a particularly big load to fill right now though: Adafruit's sales have been down a stunning 90%, Torrone says. Usually, Adafruit ships about 30,000 orders every month, but it's slipped to about 3,000.
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