New video footage shows two Tennessee brothers donating boxes of hand sanitizer after they were ordered to cease trying to sell 17,700 bottles online because of suspected price gouging by the state’s attorney general.
Matt and Noah Colvin of Hixson, who bought the bottles of hand sanitizer and sold some of them for as much as $70 each amid the coronavirus outbreak, say they have ‘nothing to hide,’ in response to a state investigation that’s now underway.
The attorney general stepped in after the brothers spent $10,000 to $15,000 stocking up hand sanitizer and other items, which are now in demand thanks to the global pandemic that has killed thousands and will likely infect many more.
The Colvins then placed the items for sale on their Amazon online store, pricing hand sanitizer for as much as $70 apiece, before Amazon shut them down.
New video footage shows two Tennessee brothers donating boxes of hand sanitizer after they were ordered to cease trying to sell 17,700 bottles online because of suspected price gouging by the state’s attorney general
Matt and Noah Colvin of Hixson, who bought the bottles of hand sanitizer (pictured in boxes), had sold some of them for as much as $70 each to profit off the coronavirus outbreak
Matt (pictured) and Noah Colvin say they have ‘nothing to hide’ in response to a state investigation that’s now underway
‘I just want to make clear that donating the sanitizers does not mean they are off the hook legally. If evidence establishes they engaged in price gouging we will seek appropriate penalties,’ said Samantha Fisher, director of communications, Tennessee Attorney General, WRCB reports.
Boxes of some 17,700 bottles of hand sanitizer are seen piled up in a moving truck. The Colvins had placed the items for sale on their Amazon online store, pricing hand sanitizer for as much as $70 apiece, before Amazon shut them down.
The attorney general stepped in after the brothers spent $10,000 to $15,000 stocking up hand sanitizer and other items (pictured) which are now in demand thanks to the global pandemic that has killed thousands and will likely infect many more
The brothers drove 1,300 miles across the state and neighboring Kentucky earlier this month after the first coronavirus death was reported in the US.
Seeing a lucrative business opportunity, they filled a U-Haul truck with thousands of bottles of hand sanitizer and thousands of packs of antibacterial wipes that they ‘cleaned out’ from various Dollar Tree, Walmart, Staples and Home Depot locations.
In total, they spent $10,000 to $15,000 stocking up on the items which are now in demand thanks to the global pandemic that has killed thousands and will likely infect many more.
‘The bulk of it was purchased just driving around to retail stores in the Chattanooga area,’ Matt Colvin told WRCB.
Matt Colvin is seen at his Hixson, Tennessee, home on Thursday after Amazon shut down his resell of more than 17,000 bottles of hand sanitizer and thousands of other cleaning products
Colvin and his brother, Noah, drove around Tennessee and Kentucky for three days and spent between $10,000 and $15,000 on the products as news of the first coronavirus deaths in the United States was being reported
Matt Colvin is seen with his wife, Brittany, and their son, Logan, at their Hixson home on Thursday
Matt Colvin then stayed at his home near Chattanooga, where he was expecting deliveries of boxes of even more sanitizer, cleansing products and surgical masks.
Colvin told The New York Times that he began listing some of the products on Amazon – and was selling them at a considerable markup.
‘It was crazy money,’ he told the Times.
Colvin, like other online resellers, bought the items at the store for reasonably priced sums. A bottle of Purell hand sanitizer normally sells for $1 each.
On Amazon, he charged $20 for a two-pack set, according to the Times.
Colvin defended himself against accusations he was price gouging, saying that the cost of delivering it to customers as well as Amazon’s commission eat into profits.
He said that anti-price gouging laws in Tennessee and elsewhere are not suitable to the current digital age.
‘They’re built for Billy Bob’s gas station doubling the amount he charges for gas during a hurricane,’ Colvin said of the laws currently on the books.
‘Just because it cost me $2 in the store doesn’t mean it’s not going to cost me $16 to get it to your door,’ he said.
When asked if he felt badly about turning a profit by selling products that prevent the spread of a lethal virus, Colvin countered that he was just correcting ‘inefficiencies in the marketplace.’
‘There’s a crushing overwhelming demand in certain cities right now,’ he said.
‘The Dollar General in the middle of nowhere outside of Lexington, Kentucky, doesn’t have that.’
Colvin then claimed that he was simply running a business that was meeting consumer demand.
‘I honestly feel like it’s a public service,’ he added.
‘I’m being paid for my public service.’
Amazon, however, put a stop to it, pulling his items as well as thousands of other listings for hand sanitizer, toilet paper, and antibacterial wipes.
The online retailer warned its sellers that it would cancel their accounts entirely if they continued their selling.
Colvin was then left with a supply of nearly 18,000 bottles of hand sanitizer and thousands of packages of wipes and nowhere to sell them – at a time when store shelves were emptied out and people were frantically looking to buy them.
Colvin told the Times that after Amazon shut him down, he would look to sell the products locally.
‘If I can make a slight profit, that’s fine,’ he said.
‘But I’m not looking to be in a situation where I make the front page of the news for being that guy who hoarded 20,000 bottles of sanitizer that I’m selling for 20 times what they cost me.’
But a harsh backlash on social media prompted Colvin to reconsider.
He and his brother said they also received death threats after being shamed on social media.
That’s when the brothers first decided to donate the products.
Thousands of independent and third-party sellers like Colvin have bought up large quantities of cleaning products and sold them online through platforms like Amazon, eBay, Walmart and other sites.
Those companies, however, are working to crack down on the practice.
After the Times posted its report on the Colvin brothers, social media users reacted with fury.
The avalanche of negative reaction prompted the Colvin brothers to pledge to donate the inventory they have to those in need.
The Colvins also deleted their social media accounts. Matt Colvin also posted a web site with the message: ‘The Hand Sanitizer in the NYT story is being donated to a local church and first responders tomorrow.’
‘Thanks for outing this guy and hurray for public pressure,’ one Twitter user wrote to the Times reporter who posted the story.
Another resident of Hixson tweeted: ‘This morning I Tweeted I would make sure everyone in my town would know Matt & Noah Colvin’s names by the end of the day.
Matt Colvin (pictured) said he has received death threats and pizza delivery pranks after The New York Times reported his story
Colvin has pledged to donate the leftover inventory to local hospitals or churches
Colvin and his brother drove around the Chattanooga area as well as neighboring Kentucky, cleaning out the shelves of stores as news broke of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States
The image above shows some of the packages of hand sanitizer that Colvin and his brother bought
‘I emailed the local newspaper this morning to reach out to him to do the right thing.
‘They contacted me and they have reporters on it.’
Others on Twitter who were outraged by the story doubted that the Colvin brothers were sincere about donating the unsold items.
One Twitter user blasted the brothers as ‘conmen’ and ‘snake oil salesmen’ and suggested that there was a more proper way to ‘handle’ them besides ‘suing them in court.’
Another Twitter user tweeted: ‘When you are forced to do the right thing, is it really doing the right thing?’
One Twitter user said the Colvins’ pledge to donate the unsold items was too little, too late.
‘Too late, dude just ruined his entire life,’ the Twitter user wrote.
‘Now every time he or his kid Googles his name, he’s gonna come up as the Great Value Martin Shkreli.’
Shkreli is the former ‘pharma bro’ who became notorious for raising the price of the anti-parasitic drug Daraprim by more than 5,000% while serving as chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals, now known as Phoenixus AG.
He is serving a prison sentence after he was convicted of defrauding investors in his hedge funds and conspiring to manipulate the stock of Retrophin Inc, a biotechnology company he ran.
After facing the massive public backlash, Matt Colvin told the Chattanooga Times Free Press that he is looking to donate everything.
‘I’m trying to figure out where to donate it to,’ he said.
‘I didn’t anticipate the magnitude of what was going to be happening now.’
Colvin agreed to speak to the Times and to get his story out because he believed he was among other independent vendors who were frustrated by not being able to sell their inventory.
Instead, he became the poster boy for profiteering off of the suffering of others.
‘The amount of hate has been unreal,’ he said.
‘It’s been a disaster. People are tweeting guillotines at me.’
Colvin told the Times Free Press that he spent much of Saturday searching for a public health agency or hospital willing to take the products.
He says he has even had people contact him who were willing to buy them.
The reaction on social media was fierce, with Twitter users scorning the brothers
One Twitter user blasted the brothers as ‘conmen’ and ‘snake oil salesmen’ and suggested that there was a more proper way to ‘handle’ them besides ‘suing them in court.’
‘Too late, dude just ruined his entire life,’ the Twitter user wrote. ‘Now every time he or his kid Googles his name, he’s gonna come up as the Great Value Martin Shkreli’
‘Thanks for outing this guy and hurray for public pressure,’ one Twitter user wrote to the Times reporter who posted the story
‘When you are forced to do the right thing, is it really doing the right thing?’ one Twitter user noted
Other Twitter users doubted that Colvin was sincere about his pledge to donate the items
A Twitter user claiming to be a Hixson resident said she sought to ‘make sure everyone in my town would know Matt & Noah Colvin’s name’
Times reporter Jack Nicas noted that there were currently packages of toilet paper that were being resold on Amazon for $72.43 apiece
‘I’ve had a dozen serious offers to buy it,’ he said.
‘I just want to get it to someone who can get it to someone who can use it.’
Colvin said that he has been a full-time online reseller for the last five years.
His online shops sell products ranging from candy, kids’ toys and dog treats.
Colvin tries to anticipate marketplace trends and consumer demand so that he knows what to offer the public for sale.
The brothers said that they never anticipated the situation becoming so dire that they would face such intense backlash.
After the harsh backlash, Matt Colvin deleted his social media and posted a website with a message pledging to donate the hand sanitizers to a local church and first responders
‘Did any of us think we’d be where we are right now?’ he said.
‘I wouldn’t be running around trying to get this stuff right now.’
The brothers managed to sell just 200 bottles of hand sanitizer before Amazon derailed their plans.
The Colvins said they just needed a few more days and they would have gotten rid of their inventory.
‘If Amazon had let us keep selling for four more days, we’d be done with it – it would be gone,’ he said.
Instead, the Colvins are being scorned publicly. Some have even gone to the trouble of calling pizza delivery services and ordering boxes of pies under their name.
‘I went viral on the web this morning and people have been playing pranks on me all day,’ he told one pizza delivery driver.
‘I’m sorry, man. Domino’s and Pizza Hut called first, so maybe let them know back at the store not to come here today.’
The Tennessee attorney general threatened to take legal action against the Colvin brothers if they bought up more medical supplies
As for the items, he said: ‘If donating the product stops the death threats, it’s worth it.’
The public outrage prompted the Tennessee attorney general to threaten the Colvin brothers with legal action if they kept on buying medical products.
‘We will not tolerate price gouging in this time of exceptional need, and we will take aggressive action to stop it,’ said Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III.
The coronavirus outbreak prompted Tennessee’s governor, Bill Lee, to declare a state of emergency.
The declaration automatically triggers anti-price gouging laws that forbid vendors from inflating their prices during an emergency.
Just as news of the coronavirus outbreak was being reported nationwide, Tennessee also suffered casualties from powerful tornadoes which left some 24 people dead.