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.
Even before that, Amazon and Ebay were taking down marketplace sellers that were price gouging. For some that can be more painful. Since Amazon court is very tough and an Amazon ban is forever.
The stores I was in this last week limit quantities. For example 2 or 4 items per person per category.
Went to Wally World yesterday. Packed, this store in this small town is NEVER packed. No TP, no ibuprofen, no allergy meds, no naproxen. I did need ibuprofen PM which was still on the shelves. Maybe people should buy more of this so they can relax, even just a bit, through this panic. 😦
I was fuming about rice stocks too yesterday, but today I'm a little ashamed about that. There is a shortage, but that's because people have been buying it "in case," rather than hoarding or panic-buying as such; and although it has been on my list all week and I am down to my last two helpings, I was certainly never in "danger" of having to eat my chilli with garlic bread instead. Anyway, dear old Waitrose had plenty this morning, what a fuss I made about nothing.
I didn't even bother looking for hand gel, partly because I'm fine for now, partly no doubt I was subconsciously afraid people would laugh at me for even looking, and partly because we're supposed to be issued with it at work, and if *they* run out - then I don't know what.
But we all know it, and yet "we all" (I know not all, but enough as makes no difference) do it. The ONLY reason there is a shortage of hand gel is that people have been buying stocks they don't need; and one reason for that is there is money to be made; and the only reason for that is that people allow themselves to be blackmailed.
It's not insulin. It's not anti-venom. It's not even soap or clean water. It's hand gel - it is NOT going to save anybody's life. Do not pay silly amounts of money for it just so you'll have something to tell your great-grandchildren about what you did in the Great Covid-19 War.
I agree that profiteering is vile, and such people are extremely cynical. But for one thing it is something that governments can easily put a stop to within days (rationing and distribution of essential supplies); and for another the answer lies in the consumers' hands. The sharks may be irresponsible but so are people who buy from them.
I gave the bottle I carried in my tunic pocket to a client three weeks ago, not because of the corona virus but because he had D&V and he does the cooking for himself and disabled wife 😱. It's now sitting on his side table next to a jumbo sized bottle that his son brought him and I'm quite tempted to pinch mine back. Except that I don't exactly know where it's been...