Tennessee Man Has 17,700 Bottles of Hand Sanitizer With No Where to Sell Them

After the first U.S. coronavirus death on February 29,  two brothers went out to pick up some hand sanitizer. They drove all around Chattanooga, Tennessee, and cleaned out the shelves at local stores like the Dollar Tree and Walmart.

Matt and Noah Colvin continued doing this for the next three days, covering more than 1,300 miles and crossing over into Kentucky. They filled a U-Haul truck with supplies like hand sanitizer and antibacterial wipes with the intention of listing them on Amazon. They quickly sold the 300 bottles of hand sanitizer they listed, and each bottle went for $8 all the way up to $70.

What was some “crazy money” to the brothers was considered profiteering from a pandemic to others. So the next day, Amazon pulled their listings for hand sanitizer, antibacterial wipes and face masks. Sellers were warned that price gouging would result in a loss of their accounts and Amazon removed hundreds of thousands of listings for these items.

The result?

The brothers are now sitting on 17,700 bottles of hand sanitizer with no idea of where to sell them while millions of people are scrounging the stores for these very supplies.

“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?'”

Last Wednesday, Amazon took it a step further and restricted the sale of ANY coronavirus-related products from certain sellers.

“Price gouging is a clear violation of our policies, unethical, and in some areas, illegal,” Amazon said in a statement. “In addition to terminating these third party accounts, we welcome the opportunity to work directly with states attorneys general to prosecute bad actors.”

Colvin, a former Air Force technical sergeant, has enjoyed a six-figure career since he started selling on Amazon in 2015. He did this through the sale of Nike shoes, pet toys and anything that was trending. So as the headlines kept rolling in about the coronavirus, he saw an opportunity to capitalize. He found a defunct company with leftover ‘pandemic packs' and got the price down to $3.50 so he could buy them all. Each pack came with 50 face masks, 4 bottles of hand sanitizer, and a thermometer.

He sold out of the 2,000 packs quickly, selling them for $40 to $50 each.

To many, these sellers are essentially sitting on a stockpile of medical supplies at a time like this. Now the attorney general's office in California, Washington and New York are all investigating coronavirus related price gouging.

By California law, sellers cannot increase prices by more than 10% after officials have declared an emergency.

What can be considered price gouging to some, Colvin considers business. While he's selling 2 bottles of Purell for $20, which typically retails for $2, he says that doesn't take into account his labor, Amazon's fees and about $10 in shipping since alcohol-based hand sanitizer is considered a hazardous material.

Colvin says that the price gouging laws are “not built for today's day and age. They're built for Billy Bob's gas station doubling the amount he charges for gas during a hurricane. Just because it cost me $2 in the stores doesn't mean it's not going to cost me $16 to get it to your door.”

Colvin is now looking to sell his supplies locally, or donate them where needed.