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Corona virus price gouging
As the coronavirus continues to spread in the United States, more Americans are taking precautionary measures like using hand sanitizer, halting travel, and avoiding handshakes. There is a lot to worry about with this outbreak, but absurd prices for sanitizers and other critical safety supplies shouldn’t be one of them.
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Despite U.S. PIRG Education Fund publicly shaming Amazon and other online retailers for allowing price gouging in their online marketplaces at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, a new analysis shows that the problem is still serious.
Six months later, U.S. PIRG Education Fund revisited whether Amazon had lived up to its promise of tackling price gouging. Our new analysis looked at 10 staple products found on many shopping lists during the COVID-19 pandemic, including hand sanitizers, disinfectant wipes and digital thermometers. Of these items, options from Amazon were two to fourteen times more expensive than the identical products sold at other retailers. Some examples include:
Disinfectant Wipes: We found the same 75-count Clorox Disinfecting Wipes listed on Amazon for $37.95, the second by Target for $4.49 and the third by Home Depot for $5.14. The price of the Amazon option is over eight times as high as Target’s and over seven times as high as Home Depot’s.
Paper Towels: We found a pack of 6 Bounty Doubles Select-A-Size rolls on Amazon for $58.80. We found the exact same Bounty product on Walmart’s website for $9.98 and on Kroger’s website for $11.99. Amazon’s price is almost six times as high as Walmart’s and almost five times as high as Kroger’s.
Antibacterial Hand Wipes: We found a 40-count Wet Ones Antibacterial Wipes canister for $27.60 on Amazon, compared with prices of $1.99 and $1.98 at Target and Walmart. The Amazon price is almost 14 times as expensive as Target and Walmart.
“Not only do we need Amazon and other major online marketplaces to police themselves, but also we’re calling on every state to pass anti-price gouging laws that will protect consumers.” said Grace Brombach, U.S. PIRG Education Fund’s Consumer Watchdog Associate. "No one should have to pay exorbitant prices on essential products, during this pandemic or in future national and state emergencies.”
