It’s inevitable where during a time where people are desperate to purchase items that there will be people who see an opportunity to make a lot of money even if it means buying up all the local inventory and then reselling it for a very high cost. A lot of people were apparently doing that with items such as hand sanitizers. With the ease of being able to setup an account with companies such as Amazon to resell to a global market evidently there were people making quick money this way due to the COVID 19 panic.
That’s where it got interesting as apparently Amazon is one of the companies that are cracking down on price gougers where accounts that have been reselling these items were told that they will be taken offline line. They apparently told people the following:
Dear Seller,
You are receiving this message because you are currently selling, or have previously sold, products such as disposable face masks, hand sanitizers, disinfecting wipes/sprays, isopropyl alcohol or related products.We have implemented more stringent requirements to sell these products in our store and as a result, your offers have been removed. We are not accepting applications to sell these products at this time.
If you have any remaining inventory of these products in Amazon’s fulfillment centers, you will need to create a Removal Order and Amazon will reimburse you for the return or disposal fees through May 31, 2020. If you believe Amazon erroneously identified your product for removal, please contact Seller Support.
Thank you,
Kind of interesting as I was reading how a lot of sellers did not think that was right to do as it is simply a supply and demand scenario. Of course the main criticism would be that one is taking advantage of vulnerable people in need. It makes me wonder, would you consider people who do this to be in the same vein as say a drug dealer? Or would you say it’s simply capitalism per se?