While some Americans began to fear for their health in light of the coronavirus pandemic, others, such as Matt Colvin, realized they could profit from the virus. As the extent of the pandemic was being realized, many health professionals began to recommend the use of hand sanitizer, wipes and other PPE (personal protective equipment) such as gloves and masks. With so much uncertainty about COVID-19, the general public took no chances and followed these suggestions, purchasing masks, wipes, hand sanitizer and gloves. This is when Colvin realized he could make a lot of money out of this situation. Demand for these products was becoming extremely inelastic, which meant consumers would pay just about anything to get it. Colvin and his brother, Noah, live in Tennessee and they drove throughout most of the state, and Kentucky, cleaning out stores of their wipes and hand sanitizer. Not only did they put people in their hometown at a disadvantage, they also crossed state borders to do the same to others. But this didn't stop there, they began to list these products on Amazon with prices ranging from $8-$70. While Amazon soon pulled the listing after reports of price gouging, selling an item at an unreasonably high price, it was after over 300 units had been sold. At this point, Colvin had over 17,000 products left and with so much negative backlash, he was forced into donating them to charity, something he should've done to begin with. Colvin has shown no remorse over his actions, even stating that he only donated the items because of the negative news reports.
The current pandemic has made times extremely hard for the majority of Americans. Thousands, if not millions, have lost their jobs and are struggling to make ends meet. This is a time for the community to come together, not individuals such as Matt Colvin to take the time to charge people 10-20 times more for simple hand sanitizer or wipes. People shouldn't have to worry about paying exorbitant amounts of money on products meant to help their health.
https://www.syracuse.com/coronavirus/2020/03/man-who-tried-to-sell-18000-bottles-of-hand-sanitizer-for-profit-is-forced-to-donate-them-to-charity.html
It's really sad that he and his brother decided to ignore suggestions to stay put and quarantine to make money and even worse that they tried to prey on people's fears and overprice important goods. I'm really glad that he, if unhappily, donated the supplies to charity.
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