It Is Only After They Got Caught

The Colvin brothers, Matt and Noah,  of Hixon, Tennessee, targets of international criticism and scorn following their sob story to the New York Times about them hoarding 17,700 bottles of hand sanitzer and then not being able to sell them, have donated the products back to the community.

Tragic figure Matt Colvin with some of his unsold items

They did it only because they are under investigation by Tennessee authorities for price gouging.  Price gouging is illegal in many jurisdictions, and this case is a good example why.

The Colvins took a U-Haul truck and went all over Tennessee and Kentucky in early March, as the COVID-19 infections were rising nationwide,  clearing the shelves in various stores, including dollar stores, of all hand sanitizers and other cleaning products.  Then they turned around and sold some 200 of the items online at huge markups before Amazon and eBay cracked down on scalpers like them.  At this point, they decided to talk to the media and try to elicit sympathy they could no longer make money off other people's suffering.  They have families to support, after all, and apparently neither brother worked in a regular, honest job, just online scamming of gullible people.

Some noted these guys didn't buy from manufacturers or distributors or warehouses like legitimate stores do; instead, they just went around and basically stole from customers to turn around and charge scalpers' prices to online customers desperate for sanitizing products.  They were no different than looters who rob stores and residences during natural disasters.

These guys, both in their thirties, lacked total self-awareness of how their tragic story would play with the public.  Well, the article got over 4,000 comments at the NYT's webpage alone, almost all of them highly critical of their greed, loads of condemnation from Twitter and other social media, and even death threats.  Finally, Tennessee authorities started an investigation of them, and this could wind up costing them way more than their greed.

From the second linked article:

“It was never my intention to keep necessary medical supplies out of the hands of people who needed them,” he said, crying. “That’s not who I am as a person. And all I’ve been told for the last 48 hours is how much of that person I am.”

Now Colvin is facing consequences. On Sunday, Amazon and eBay suspended him as a seller, which is how he has made his living for years. The company where he rented a storage unit kicked him out. And the Tennessee attorney general’s office sent him a cease-and-desist letter and opened an investigation.

“We will not tolerate price gouging in this time of exceptional need, and we will take aggressive action to stop it,” Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III of Tennessee said in a news release.

The article notes he might get away with it because the state of emergency, including the price gouging happened after the brothers went out and bought the items.

Loopholes, glorious loopholes.