He has 17,700 Bottles of Hand Sanitizer and Nowhere to Sell Them

[Mockingbird]

Quote

 

On March 1, the day after the first coronavirus death in the United States, brothers Matt and Noah Colvin set out in a silver S.U.V. to pick up some hand sanitizer. Driving around Chattanooga, Tenn., they hit a Dollar Tree, then a Walmart, a Staples and a Home Depot. At each store, they cleaned out the shelves.

 

Over the next three days, Noah Colvin took a 1,300-mile road trip across Tennessee and into Kentucky, filling a U-Haul truck with thousands of bottles of hand sanitizer and thousands of packs of antibacterial wipes, mostly from “little hole-in-the-wall dollar stores in the backwoods,” his brother said. “The major metro areas were cleaned out.”

 

Matt Colvin stayed home near Chattanooga, preparing for pallets of even more wipes and sanitizer he had ordered, and starting to list them on Amazon. Mr. Colvin said he had posted 300 bottles of hand sanitizer and immediately sold them all for between $8 and $70 each, multiples higher than what he had bought them for. To him, “it was crazy money.” To many others, it was profiteering from a pandemic.

 

The next day, Amazon pulled his items and thousands of other listings for sanitizer, wipes and face masks. The company suspended some of the sellers behind the listings and warned many others that if they kept running up prices, they’d lose their accounts. EBay soon followed with even stricter measures, prohibiting any U.S. sales of masks or sanitizer.

 

Now, while millions of people across the country search in vain for hand sanitizer to protect themselves from the spread of the coronavirus, Mr. Colvin is sitting on 17,700 bottles of the stuff with little idea where to sell them.

 

“It’s been a huge amount of whiplash,” he said. “From being in a situation where what I’ve got coming and going could potentially put my family in a really good place financially to ‘What the heck am I going to do with all of this?’”

 

[...]

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/14/technology/coronavirus-purell-wipes-amazon-sellers.html

[+devHead Subscriber²]

Well, if you're going to rip off people by selling them for between $8 and $70, you're a greedy punk and you're getting what you deserve.  Greed makes people do things that are so stupid.  

[jnelsoninjax]

I just got done reading the whole article, and I do not feel bad for him at all. He bought something for $5 and sold it for $50, that is price gouging, I do not care what you think it is, it is gouging 100%, making ~$40 profit on something...

[cork1958]

8 minutes ago, jnelsoninjax said:

I just got done reading the whole article, and I do not feel bad for him at all. He bought something for $5 and sold it for $50, that is price gouging, I do not care what you think it is, it is gouging 100%, making ~$40 profit on something...

No doubt and I hope he can't sell a single bottle!!

[eddman]

In some countries he would get arrested and sentenced. What a pathetic person.

[Asharae]

I can't believe people have actually been like this, its disgusting really!

[Mockingbird]

44 minutes ago, eddman said:

In some countries he would get arrested and sentenced. What a pathetic person.

https://consumer.findlaw.com/consumer-transactions/price-gouging-laws-by-state.html

[jnelsoninjax]

51 minutes ago, eddman said:

In some countries he would get arrested and sentenced. What a pathetic person.

Most states have some form of price gouging laws that come into effect when a state of emergency is declared, the article mentioned a few states, and he is clearly in violation of those laws, hence the reason he can not sell them. What I couldn't tell from the article was if the New York Times was feeling bad for this guy or not, I really hope that they were not!

[ZakO]

Good. Hopefully he makes a loss, it's unfortunate people like him aren't charged in situations like this. You've got to be a pretty ###### person if your first thought is to buy up all the hand sanitizer to make a profit while people are trying to minimize the spread of a virus killing thousands.

 

Quote

He thought about it more. “I honestly feel like it’s a public service,” he added. “I’m being paid for my public service.”

Deluded. 

 

Edited March 14, 2020 by ZakO

[FloatingFatMan]

Serves him right! I hope he loses his shirt for his attempted price gouging!

 

[techbeck]

Finally got around to read the whole article. And I can understand making a little profit, but he was selling hand sanitizer for $70. And then claims he was not price gouging because the costs includes his labor and shipping.....what an idiot. I bet it is really hard to drive to stores and buy things. And my 3 year old grandniece can put a product in a box, slap a label on it, and call UPS for pickup. No no real labor cost there. And depending on shipping method and quantity, $10 is a little high. Believe ground shipping is a few bucks or a little more. But I have not looked. But anyway.....Serves him right and I hope he and other get charged for price gouging. Selfish and immoral thing to do and the fact he doesn't think he was doing anything wrong.....hope his kids grow up better.

Glad Amazon and eBay finally took action against it. And keeping these things banned going forward, will make it harder for these selfish ###### to do things.

[Peresvet]

Greed begets poverty.

[SnoopZ]

What selfish bastards.

[Skyfrog]

State Attorney General Hits Hixson Brothers, Matt And

Noah Colvin, For Price Gouging During Coronavirus Crisis

https://www.chattanoogan.com/2020/3/14/405791/State-Attorney-General-Hits-Hixson.aspx

 

He needs to face some heavy fines, I hope he loses every cent he made and then some. His 17700 bottles of sanitizer should be confiscated too and donated to those who need it.

 

 

[Peresvet]

18 minutes ago, Skyfrog said:

His 17700 bottles of sanitizer should be confiscated too 

lmao

 

 

[Steven P. Administrators]

The worst kind of people always "shine" in times like this. 🤬

[FloatingFatMan]

1 hour ago, Skyfrog said:

State Attorney General Hits Hixson Brothers, Matt And

Noah Colvin, For Price Gouging During Coronavirus Crisis

https://www.chattanoogan.com/2020/3/14/405791/State-Attorney-General-Hits-Hixson.aspx

 

He needs to face some heavy fines, I hope he loses every cent he made and then some. His 17700 bottles of sanitizer should be confiscated too and donated to those who need it.

 

 

May as well. I imagine that right now, all he can do is play that old favourite game from our childhood....

 

#17700 bottles of hand sanitizer on the wall, 17700 bottles of hand sanitizer on the walllll... Take one down, pass it around, 17699 bottles of hand sanitizer on the wall...#

 

[Steven P. Administrators]

Think there's a good resolve for this story

 

 

[Steven P. Administrators]

 

What's more sad, they don't care at all, it's all me me me!

[Barney T. Administrators]

As a health care worker on the frontline of this pandemic, I find this kind of behavior abhorrent. It is disgusting. Let's wait for the time when those guys are on a ventilator and in need of serious help. What asshats. And Steve's cartoon above says it all.

[Peresvet]

7 hours ago, Steven P. said:

 

What's more sad, they don't care at all, it's all me me me!

And the store owners, the producers, the manufacturers, and anyone working in the supply chain and logistics - are all laughing all the way to the bank. It's a frigging Black Friday sale in March!!!  for them.

 

We live in a dog-eat-dog world.

 

Each of us is just trying to take care of our own and our family.

 

Whoever came earlier, got what they needed.

[Peresvet]

In fact, it's safe to say now that both the authorities and the media have caused impulsive panic buying behaviour across populations.

 

The way the situation has been handled on those fronts couldn't have been worse.

[Steven P. Administrators]

42 minutes ago, Peresvet said:

In fact, it's safe to say now that both the authorities and the media have caused impulsive panic buying behaviour across populations.

 

The way the situation has been handled on those fronts couldn't have been worse.

Really? It never crossed my mind to fill my spare room with toilet paper. I guess I just didn't understand what those people were thinking.

[cork1958]

Man has donated all the sanitizer and wipes. Sheesh, wonder why?

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/15/technology/matt-colvin-hand-sanitizer-donation.html?algo=top_conversion&fellback=false&imp_id=264861071&imp_id=783782889&action=click&module=Most%20Popular&pgtype=Homepage

[shockz]

9 hours ago, Peresvet said:

And the store owners, the producers, the manufacturers, and anyone working in the supply chain and logistics - are all laughing all the way to the bank. It's a frigging Black Friday sale in March!!!  for them.

 

We live in a dog-eat-dog world.

 

Each of us is just trying to take care of our own and our family.

 

Whoever came earlier, got what they needed.

What's wrong with you?

 

Came earlier and got what they needed? Are you justifying the people bulk buying 10 packages of 32 rolls of toilet paper? For the span of a month or two? Even with a 4 person household, that's enough to last for years. We go through a roll every 2 weeks, if that. That's enough TP to last our household for 12 years. They got what they needed, and then quite some more.