Brothers who have gone viral after their ‘profiteering’ plan backfired have announced they have donated 17,700 pieces of hand sanitizing supplies.
The story of Tennessee-based Matthew and Noah Colvin came to light shortly after they had spent some $10,000 to $15,000 on hand sanitizers in hopes of reselling them for up to seventy times more.
As the Hixson brothers had hoped, emptying local stores of products such as rubbing alcohol would allow them to make a massive profit by reselling the purchased items amid incredibly high demand caused by coronavirus outbreak.
“The bulk of it was purchased just driving around to retail stores in the Chattanooga area,” Matt said in an interview with WRCB-TV as he opened up about the pair’s business idea initiated by the global pandemic.
As The New York Times reported, the brothers have opened an Amazon account and started reselling stockpiled hand sanitizers for “crazy money.”
While the brothers were widely slammed and accused of profiteering, Colvin insisted they were simply fixing “inefficiencies in the marketplace.”
“I honestly feel like it’s a public service. I’m being paid for my public service,” he added.
After a while, however, Amazon pulled the plug and suspended the brothers’ account along with accounts of other sellers involved in price gouging.
Being left with nearly 18,000 sanitizing products and no one to sell them to online, the brothers decided to shift their focus to meet the local demands.
“If I can make a slight profit, that’s fine. 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,” he added.
Following a severe backlash on social media after the names of the brothers went viral, however, the Colvins apparently had a change of heart and decided to donate the hoarded hand sanitizers.
“The Hand Sanitizer in the NYT story is being donated to a local church and first responders tomorrow,” Matt wrote online.
As seen in the videos taken by the local media, the brothers have already delivered the sanitizers to several locations.
While the pair insisted they didn’t do anything wrong by bulk-buying the much-needed supplies, people are happy they did the right thing and donated the items.
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Replaced!