Matt & Noah Colvin Chattanooga, Tennessee brothers stuck with 17, 700 coronavirus bottles of hand sanitizer they’d hoped to re sell at rip off rates.
### Update, March 15: Well that didn’t take (too) long! Matt Colvin, who angered the universe and social media en masse after the New York Times ran a story (see original post below) about him profiting off of selling hand sanitizer bottles for a high price amid the growing Coronavirus pandemic, has admitted to donating them to a local church and first responders. Hooray – Matt, you have a soul and conscious after all!
### Original post, March 14: You shall not exploit a public health crises and make a dime off our collective misery (unless of course you are an FDA approved pharmaceutical).
A pair of Chattanooga, Tennessee hoarders brothers hoping to get quick rich off the novel coronavirus pandemic health crises sweeping the world have been preempted by Amazon after the online depot got wind of the brothers’ scheme and put a quick veto on what ostensibly turns out to be a massive price gouging scheme (yes kids, what else is new….?).
Matt and Noah Colvin came up their get-rich scheme to corner all of the antibacterial wipes and hand sanitizers they could find after the first U.S. coronavirus was reported March 1 – with the brothers hoping their entrepreneurial acumen would lead to them making a killing on their re-sale, according to a New York Times interview with the duo.
And it nearly worked… except for the part of the platform where the hawking would be conducted from.
NEW — TENNESSEANS from HIXSON Matt & Noah Colvin cleaned out hand sanitizer supplies in stores intending to PRICE-GOUGE on Amazon… (or as the GOP calls it- “the free market”!)
BUT Amazon has blocked the ugly practice, so they’re stuck holding the bag.https://t.co/PYFrlUPAUz
— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) March 14, 2020
Easy street get rich off other people’s needs and miseries backfires and how:
The Colvins driving around in a silver SUV proceeded to snap up all the sanitizers they could find across Tennessee and Kentucky. The duo thought they’d landed on ‘easy street’ when the first 300 bottles of hand sanitizer they purchased sold out for between $8 and $70 a pop at resale rates ‘multiples higher than what he had bought them for,’ the Times reported.
Yes kids, sounds like another day of capitalism at the office to me…. well maybe not?
The brothers described cleaning out a Dollar Tree, a Walmart, Staples and Home Depot and bought thousands of packs of antibacterial wipes from ‘little hole-in-the-wall dollar stores in the backwoods,’ the Times reported.
‘Tt was crazy money,’ Matt Colvin told the nytimes.
Hmm kids, why didn’t you and I think of this crazy get rich scheme?
The world unfortunately for the Chattanooga brothers soon turned upside down when Amazon (why be tainted by others’ greeds during a world pandemic??) got wise to the pandemic price gouging and pulled the duo’s items and thousands of other listings for hand sanitizers, face masks and wipes, the Times reported.
Yes kids, capitalism does entail risk, along with access to capital and these days access to lawmakers or influential movers and shakers who often have a large say as to how things get conducted in their neck of their woods.
When it rains, it pours.
Matt + Noah Colvin- you’re the problem, not the solution. You’re trying to capitalize on people’s needs amid a pandemic. You’re a literal representation of everything wrong with our society. Donate what you have left to hospitals + nursing homes, you sacks of shit. https://t.co/vkBTB4O8Ce
— Halee Kingkeo (@HaleeKingkeo) March 14, 2020
Any ideas what the Colvins should do with the 17,700 bottles of sanitizer?
It wasn’t soon after that Ebay also followed suit with ‘even stricter measures, prohibiting any US sales of masks or sanitizer,’ the times reported.
‘Oh no – but we were supposed to make a killing and help ordinary Americans deal with a public health crises (at a steep immoral price of course) and now we got screwed!’
The ban has led to Colvins saddled with a garage filled with 17,700 bottles of sanitizer they can’t sell – this despite ordinary Americans scrambling to get their hands on the hygiene products.
‘It’s been a huge amount of whiplash,’ Matt Colvin reflected. ‘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?’
What do you think the Colvins should do kids? Place your comments below….
