On March 1, the day after the first coronavirus death in the United States, Matt and Noah Colvin saw an opportunity to profit. Over the next three days, the Colvin brothers took a 1,300-mile road trip across Tennessee and into Kentucky, filling a U-Haul truck with thousands of bottles of hand sanitizer and thousands of packs of antibacterial wipes.

Their plan was to sell the items at inflated prices on Amazon, a price gouging tactic resellers like to call ‘retail arbitrage‘. Then in response to growing criticism from regulators and customers, Amazon and eBay (who also own Kijiji) cracked down, banning price gougers from their marketplace during the current pandemic.

Check out the New York Times article and interview with local tv news station below, that has set many people off:

 

 

The viral news story has drawn sharp criticism online and these two friends even wrote a song about the man, who probably regrets doing an interview about his pandemic-profiteering business… all while wearing a shirt that says: Family Man, Family Business