Profiteering from the CV outbreak: a tale of greed
This article addresses two men as well as others who manipulated market sections by buying out local stores, stripping their supplies of hand sanitizer and masks, then reselling them at outrageous prices.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/he-has-17700-bottles-of-hand-sanitizer-and-nowhere-to-sell-them/ar-BB11blvS?ocid=spartandhp
One man sold hand sanitizers at anywhere from $7 to $70 per bottle, until he was shut down and shut out of the profiteering market. He's not the only one.
He and his brother hit 4 stores in TN and KY, filling a U-Haul with supplies and stripping the stores' inventory of them. Then he resold them at multiplies, bringing in hefty revenues from the heavy markups.
Fortunately he and others have been shut down. This particular shyster now has 17,700 bottles of hand sanitizer. That's more than I could use in a lifetime. And yet people in need are going w/o, while this man and other shysters are hoarding supplies.
Hopefully the states will take action against him for this kind of profiteering, with an added charge perhaps of hoarding supplies necessary to a pandemic and depriving individuals of their need for these supplies.
Since some of these people have done this before, I think RICO charges could also be considered. This may not be a high level organized crime, but it is a pattern of crimes.
But I also blame the stores for allowing someone to strip their entire supply of any type of product, especially one needed during a health crisis.
When you next try to buy hand sanitizer, it might be because someone, somewhere, has already bought out a store's supply. That's not a very comforting thought, and reflects the irresponsibility and self enrichment of some shysters.
I shoulda got a big jar of skippy at Costco. My hubby is off work tomorrow so I might go back on my word and go to Safeway tomorrow. I need my coffee creamer (their store brand Lucerne is the absolute best. Try it!! I love the Belgian chocolate toffee flavor) and have enough for 2-3 cups of coffee.
Is everyone else having trouble finding ANY paper products? No one here has toilet paper, Kleenex OR napkins! We have enough TP for at least 10 days and same with paper towels and napkins but I could use a box of Kleenex, I’ve been using napkins.
on the subject of price gouging. Same store that had the expensive chicken breasts....i bought a marinated tri tip, the store marinated it themselves and it was behind the butchers counter. It’s on the Traeger cooking now and I shocked!!! Shocked at the price! $9.99 a pound. That is what I pay per pound for prime rib at Costco! Is that normal for tri tip? I’ve honestly never paid attention to the price per pound, we always get a 2 pack at Costco and I think we pay $35-ish? This tri tip was 2.93lbs, nearly $30! Don’t know if this is price gouging or not.
Oh my gosh! Tang! The memories...
Geeeez, I only wanted to drink it because the astronauts drank it! I so wanted to be an astronaut.
I used to sit in my grandpa’s recliner with my legs stretched out along the backside of the chair reaching up towards space! I was pretending that I was in a spaceship.
Hahaha, then I would find all of my grandpa’s change that fell out of his pockets! He would let me keep it.
That was big money back then. I would buy the ‘penny’ candy, bubble gum, wax lips, those little bottles filled with colored liquids, tootsie rolls, etc.
I thought for a very brief minute to by another freezer and then I thought--nope not going there! Both my freezers are full with meat and my mothers T.V. dinners that she can get when I make something she doesn't like. I have plenty of canned goods!
NHWM,
My sig other always eats the leftovers when he gets out of work at 9 a.m.! Whatever he doesn't eat then I make it into something else, sometimes it's good and other times it's well...okay!
I love soup and salads, but I like big meals to, so, I do some light meals and some heavy meals depending on what I am in the mood for! Just think how much money you save!
Cwilly, Can I freeze half & half?
Cwillie, I checked the link. That's truly really nice of Sunwing. Now that's an airline that cares about people.
"Sunwing Airlines Ltd. is offering vacant seats on its repatriation flights free of charge to any Canadians stranded"
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/sunwing-offers-free-seats-on-repatriation-flights-to-stranded-canadians-1.4860045
My freezer and pantry are full because we are a family 4 and unfortunately for my wallet, my kids eat A LOT. Being stuck in the house for weeks.....we are gonna go through a lot of food. My kids have been home for 4 days and eaten so much! I am actually kind of annoyed by it at the moment. So that is why I shopped for food 4 times over a 5 day period. Better to stock up now and get what I could get, rather than have to go out multiple times over the next few weeks. I don’t think the panic shopping is going to die down here any time soon. I think we have enough food to last at least 2 weeks. And if the kids want to eat all the snacks up in a matter of days and not ration it.....they can eat whatever is left in the house or go hungry. I don’t plan to go to the grocery store until at least 3/31. Well unless I find out that at least one store in this damn city finally has toilet paper LOL!!!
I might try freezing bread. That’s a good idea to stick it in the fridge or freezer.
cwille, me too. I will use up what I have when I can. I am fanatical about expiration dates! I refuse drinking milk near the expiration. Guess I am too picky about certain things but I have NEVER had food poisoning, EVER! Hahaha
I'm only one person but it is pretty rare that I throw out anything, I keep my bread in the fridge and rather than standard loaves I buy naan, tortillas, english muffins or occasionally rolls that are easily frozen and reheat well. I plan my meals around what I have to use up - I would have transformed that turkey, milk and cheese into a pasta casserole.
And although I am mystified about some of the things people are stocking up on lets don't forget that there are people out there who have larger families, especially those with teens, that need more than the average of everything.
If I don’t freeze food it goes to waste. I can’t finish eating the food before it goes bad. Just yesterday I threw out sliced cheese, sliced turkey and milk. I guess I will have to start buying a quarter of a lb instead of a half of a lb for sandwiches. It goes to waste.
Bread gets moldy before I can finish it too. I guess I don’t eat as much as I should. I never eat an entire sandwich. I started making one half of a sandwich. Why waste it? If I make a whole sandwich I throw half of it away.
I do like soup! I can eat a bowl of soup. I can eat salad too. I like chicken or seafood, not too much meat. I hate heavy meals. I would feel weighed down and sluggish if I ate like most people.
Sometimes I think something is wrong with me because I don’t get strong hunger pangs. I can skip eating for days and not be hungry. I will force myself to take a few bites here and there. I think it’s mental as well. My mom criticized me so much. I was afraid to gain any weight.
I have never weighed much more than 100 lbs. I used to hover under a hundred pounds. My husband complained that I needed to eat a bit more.
Shell your neighbor sounds out of her damn mind!! Serves her right going to those lengths to copy you! I would have done the same thing with my hair, that was great!!!
P.S..one way airfares are usually higher fares. Most people think a one-way airfare is half of a roundtrip ticket. Nope! It starts about 2/3 of a roundtrip ticket and up (e.g. advance purchase roundtrip is $1800 but a one-way can be $1100-$1200) depending on the destinations.
One of my gardening friends reminded me of what used to be used years and years ago, after the Sears Roebuck catalogues were used in outhouses: rags. You can still use toilet paper for solid waste but rags that can be washed out easily for the liquid waste. It would save a lot of toilet paper.
I am on a low fat diet, so I buy turkey, chicken and canned salmon for protein. I make ground turkey and ground beef meatloaf every week. Use spaghetti sauce, etc to keep moist and store extras in the freezer. It is good at breakfast, sandwiches or alone.
I had a neighbor who lived next to me years ago who would do the same thing. If I dyed my hair blond she did too. If I dyed my hair red well she did too. She started dressing like me. Having her hair cut like mine. So I went to a hair store and bought pieces of hair that are on clips that you just clip into your own hair, however, they were blue, pink, and purple. Yes, I wore them as if I had my hair dyed those colors. And yes, my neighbor went out and had her hair dyed those colors. So guess what I did...when my neighbor was outside, I went outside in my yard and made sure she was looking at me then I unclip all my colored hair. You want to talk about someone being mad. Wow, was she mad! She stormed into her house to tell her kids using very colorful words!
Did she learn anything-nope! When I bought my jeep she went out and bought some big SUV that she couldn't afford nor knew how to drive!! She lost her SUV a year later because she couldn't make the payments!!
Some people!!!😱
That is funny! Talk about, “Keeping up with the Joneses!”
🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️
do people really not know that.....a lot of folks sit and get drunk in the comfort of their own homes? Hell some even sit in parking lot of the liquor store and drink! I would bet $$$ a lot of folks will be drinking in order to get through this ordeal!
and as for cars on the highway.....thousands of people still have to go to work. Traffic should be expected to be lighter but people are still going to and from work. Not everyone has the luxury of working from home if their job isn’t shut down.
It’s easy to tell when a Costco member is shopping for a small business. I can even tell when it’s an employee of a LTC facility shopping for the facility. Most don’t go in and buy a cart full of meat. They use those big flat carts and buy a lot of different products in bulk.
My boss, when he had his own office building, would buy toilet paper, paper towels, and hand soaps for the restrooms. And bottle water for the office coffee maker. I never could convince him tap water would work because the water is being boiled... [sigh]. And we have excellent tasting tap water.
bookluvr, glad to see you back on-line :) I have missed you.
Sir,
Today I went to the supermarket to buy some rice but the shelf was bare. I spotted on the bottom shelf what looked like a last packet right at the back. As I stooped to inspect it a young lady was quicker than me and scooped up the packet; we stood up together. She then turned to look at me and when she saw that I was an old codger she offered me the packet of rice. It restores one's faith in one's fellow man.
Dr Klaus J Misch, FRCP, Epsom, Surrey.
I purchased toilet paper on Monday at Amazon.com where it was available to me in Denver.