Scumbag
The Man With 17,700 Bottles of Hand Sanitizer Just Donated Them
A Tennessee man had planned to sell his stockpile at marked-up prices online. Now he is under investigation for price gouging.
Matt Colvin, a Tennessee man who stockpiled hand sanitizer and wipes, says he has donated what he bought. He faces an investigation on price-gouging charges.Credit...Doug Strickland for The New York Times
By
Jack Nicas
A Tennessee man who became a subject of national scorn
after stockpiling 17,700 bottles of hand sanitizer donated all of the supplies on Sunday just as the Tennessee attorney general’s office began investigating him for price gouging.
On Sunday morning, Matt Colvin, an Amazon seller outside Chattanooga, Tenn., helped volunteers from a local church load two-thirds of his stockpile of hand sanitizer and antibacterial wipes into a box truck for the church to distribute to people in need across Tennessee.
Officials from the Tennessee attorney general’s office on Sunday took the other third, which they plan to give to their counterparts in Kentucky for distribution. (Mr. Colvin and his brother Noah bought some of the supplies in Kentucky this month.)
The donations capped a tumultuous 24 hours for Mr. Colvin. On Saturday morning, The New York Times
published an article about how he and his brother cleaned out stores of sanitizer and wipes in an attempt to profit off the public’s panic over the coronavirus pandemic. Mr. Colvin sold 300 bottles of hand sanitizer at a markup on Amazon before the company removed his listings and warned sellers they would be suspended for price gouging.
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As a result, Mr. Colvin was sitting on an enormous cache of sanitizer and wipes while much of the country searched in vain for them.
The article immediately sparked widespread outrage, with thousands of people posting angry comments across the internet about his actions.
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Many of those people also contacted Mr. Colvin directly with hate mail and death threats, while one man even banged on the door at his home late Saturday night, according to Mr. Colvin and several messages he shared with The Times.
In an hourlong interview on Sunday, Mr. Colvin expressed remorse for his actions and said that when he decided to hoard the sanitizer and wipes, he didn’t realize the gravity of the coronavirus outbreak or the severe shortage of sanitizer and wipes.
“I’ve been buying and selling things for 10 years now. There’s been hot product after hot product. But the thing is, there’s always another one on the shelf,” he said. “When we did this trip, I had no idea that these stores wouldn’t be able to get replenished
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/15/technology/matt-colvin-hand-sanitizer-donation.html
