After the first coronavirus-related death in the United States was announced, brothers Matt and Noah Colvin scavenged stores for hand sanitizer.
The pair visited multiple stores that, amid a global pandemic, are commonly unthought-of like Dollar Tree, Staples, and a Home Depot. They emptied the shelves at every store.
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The Colvin brothers continued their buy-outs over a 1,300-mile road trip across Tennesse and into Kentucky, according to The New York Times. For three days, the brothers filled a U-Haul truck with 18,000 bottles of hand sanitizer and packs of antibacterial wipes purchased from hole-in-the-wall dollar stores.
Upon returning home, Matt Colvin listed 300 bottles of hand sanitizer on Amazon for between $8 and $70 each.
The next day, Amazon suspended thousands of listings for sanitizer, wipes and face masks, leaving the Tennessee man with a stockpile of highly-demanded products and nowhere to sell them.
In an interview, Colvin expressed the mental whiplash he’s experienced saying “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?’”
Colvin has since decided to donate to his hand sanitizers after being unable to profiteer.