*Nên mua hàng một cách thông minh
Người dân xếp hàng chờ trả tiền cho các món như giấy vệ sinh, nước lọc tại một siêu thị ở Tijuana, Baja California, Mễ Tây Cơ ngày 13 tháng 3, 2020. (Getty Images)
Viễn Đông Daily - Chính quyền tiểu bang đang kêu gọi người dân nên mua hàng một cách thông minh và có tính toán, thay vì cứ đổ xô đến cửa hàng và vơ vét mọi thứ, trong bối cảnh nhiều cửa hàng cạn sạch hàng hóa vì nỗi sợ coronavirus.
Các cửa hàng như Costco, Target, Ralphs… trong thời gian đây luôn tấp nập khách hàng đến mua gel sát trùng, giấy toilet, và nước uống. Nhiều người khi đến cửa hàng chỉ thấy những dãy kệ trống trơn. Thành phố Pasadena vào thứ Sáu đã ra thông cáo khuyên người dân chỉ nên mua đồ dùng đủ cho khoảng 14 ngày cách ly, và thêm rằng “việc chuẩn bị không có nghĩa là tích trữ hàng hóa một cách vô tội vạ.”
“Hãy nghĩ đến những người khác và chỉ mua các sản phẩm quý vị thật sự cần,” thành phố nói.
Trong khi đó, nhà chức trách cũng đang bắt đầu kiểm tra những trường hợp lợi dụng khó khăn để tăng giá hàng. Phòng công tố của Los Angeles từng nhìn thấy một mục rao bán hàng trên mạng, bán thuốc tẩy với giá $100 Mỹ kim. Các thành phố và quận hạt đang lập một lực lượng đặc nhiệm để truy tìm những người tăng giá bất hợp pháp.
http://www.viendongdaily.com/nen-mua-hang-mot-cach-thong-minh-nBt5eLJ3.html
*Ôm hàng 17.700 chai nước rửa tay khô và không biết bán chúng ở đâu
Photo Credit: The New York Times
Cali Today - Vào ngày 1 tháng 3, một ngày sau cái chết của coronavirus đầu tiên ở Hoa Kỳ, anh em Matt và Noah Colvin đã lên đường trong một chiếc SUV màu bạc để gom hàng với nước khử trùng tay. Lái xe vòng quanh Chattanooga, Tenn., Họ săn lùng ở Dollar, rồi Walmart, Staples và Home Depot. Tại mỗi cửa hàng, họ mua hết tất cả các mặt hàng có trên các kệ.
Trong ba ngày tiếp theo, Noah Colvin đã thực hiện một chuyến đi dài 1.300 dặm xuyên qua Tennessee và đến Kentucky, mua nhiều mặt hàng như vậy và chất đầy một chiếc xe tải U-Haul với hàng ngàn chai nước rửa tay và hàng ngàn khăn lau kháng khuẩn.
Matt Colvin ở nhà chuẩn bị cho các pallet để đựng nhiều khăn lau và chất khử trùng hơn mà anh ta đã đặt hàng, và bắt đầu liệt kê chúng trên Amazon. Colvin cho biết anh đã bán 300 chai nước khử trùng tay và ngay lập tức bán sạch với giá từ 8 đến 70 đô la mỗi chai, cao hơn nhiều so với những gì anh đã mua chúng. Đối với anh, đó là số tiền lợi nhuận không tưởng, nhưng đối với nhiều người khác, đây được xem là trục lợi khi đại dịch hoành hành
Ngày hôm sau, Amazon đã lấy xuống tất cả các mặt hàng và hàng ngàn mặt hàng khác của tài khoản hai anh em. Công ty đã đình chỉ một số tài khoản và cảnh báo nhiều người khác rằng nếu họ cứ tăng giá, họ sẽ mất tài khoản. EBay ngay sau đó cũng đưa ra các biện pháp thậm chí nghiêm ngặt hơn, cấm mọi hoạt động bán khẩu trang hoặc chất khử trùng của Mỹ.
Bây giờ, trong khi hàng triệu người trên khắp cả nước tìm kiếm mua nước khử trùng tay để bảo vệ bản thân khỏi sự lây lan của coronavirus, Colvin đang ôm hàng 17.700 chai mà không biết nên bán chúng ở đâu.
Colvin là một trong số hàng ngàn người bán hàng đã tích trữ được các kho dự trữ chất khử trùng tay và mặt nạ phòng độc quan trọng mà nhiều bệnh viện hiện đang phân phối , theo các cuộc phỏng vấn với tám người bán hàng trên Amazon và các bài đăng trên các nhóm Facebook và Telegram tư nhân từ hàng chục người khác. Amazon cho biết gần đây họ đã xóa hàng trăm ngàn danh sách và xóa hàng ngàn tài khoản của người bán để kiểm soát giá cả liên quan đến coronavirus.
Amazon, eBay, Walmart và các nền tảng thương mại trực tuyến khác đang cố gắng ngăn người bán của họ kiếm lợi nhuận quá mức từ một cuộc khủng hoảng sức khỏe cộng đồng. Trong khi các công ty nhằm mục đích ngăn cản mọi người tích trữ các sản phẩm đó và tăng giá, nhiều người bán đã dọn sạch các cửa hàng địa phương của họ và bắt đầu bán hàng trực tuyến.
Mikeala Kozlowski, một y tá ở Dudley, Mass., Đã tìm kiếm chất khử trùng tay từ trước khi cô sinh đứa con đầu lòng, vào ngày 5 tháng 3. Khi cô tìm kiếm đến các cửa hàng để mua, nhưng mọi thứ đã được bán hết và khi cô kiểm tra Amazon, cô không thể tìm thấy những mặt hàng này bán với giá dưới 50 đô la.
Các trang web như Amazon và eBay đã tạo ra một ngành công nghiệp đang phát triển gồm những người bán hàng độc lập, những người nắm bắt các mặt hàng giảm giá hoặc khó tìm trong các cửa hàng để đăng trực tuyến và bán trên toàn thế giới.
Trở lại với Colvin, 36 tuổi, cựu trung sĩ kỹ thuật của Không quân, cho biết anh bắt đầu bán hàng trên Amazon vào năm 2015, với các mặt hàng như giày Nike và đồ chơi thú cưng, và theo xu hướng.
Đầu tháng 2, khi các tiêu đề công bố sự lây lan của coronavirus tại Trung Quốc, Colvin đã phát hiện ra một cơ hội để tận dụng. Một công ty thanh lý gần đó đang bán 2.000 gói y tế, Mỗi gói đi kèm với 50 khẩu trang, bốn chai nhỏ khử trùng tay và nhiệt kế. Giá là $ 5 một gói. Colvin đã trả xuống $ 3,5 và mua tất cả.
Colvin đã nhanh chóng bán tất cả 2.000 trong số 50 gói trên eBay, với giá từ 40 đô la đến 50 đô la mỗi chiếc, và đôi khi cao hơn. Anh từ chối tiết lộ lợi nhuận của mình trong hồ sơ nhưng cho biết đó là một con số lớn đáng kể.
Thành công khiến anh nuôi mộng làm giàu. Khi nhìn thấy công chúng hoảng loạn bắt đầu dịch bùng phát , hai anh em lên đường mua những mặt hàng để dự trữ.
Đối với kho dự trữ của mình,Colvin cho biết có lẽ anh sẽ cố gắng bán nó tại địa phương. Nếu tôi có thể kiếm được một chút lợi nhuận, thì tốt thôi, anh ấy nói.
Ở những nơi khác trong nước, những người bán hàng khác trên Amazon cũng làm như vậy.
Chris Anderson, một người bán hàng Amazon ở trung tâm Pennsylvania, cho biết anh và một người bạn đã lái xe quanh Ohio, mua khoảng 10.000 khẩu trang từ các cửa hàng. Anh đã sử dụng phiếu giảm giá để mua các gói 10 cái với giá khoảng 15 đô la mỗi cái và bán lại chúng với giá từ 40 đến 50 đô la. Sau khi trì đi chi phí của Amazon và các chi phí khác, anh ước tính, đã kiếm được lợi nhuận 25.000 đô la
Anh Anderson hiện đang giữ 500 gói khăn lau kháng khuẩn sau khi Amazon chặn tài khoản anh bán chúng với giá 19 đô la mỗi cái, tăng từ 16 tuần trước đó. Anh ấy mua các gói với giá 3 đô la mỗi cái.
Eric, một tài xế xe tải đến từ Ohio đã nói với điều kiện giấu tên vì sợ Amazon chặn, cho biết anh ta cũng đã thu thập được khoảng 10.000 khẩu trang tại các cửa hàng. Anh mua mỗi gói 10 cái với giá khoảng 20 đô la và bán hầu hết với giá khoảng 80 đô la mỗi gói, mặc dù một số gói có giá 125 đô la.
Ngay cả ở mức 125 đô la một hộp, anh đã bán gần như ngay lập tức, Anh nói. Anh ước tính mình kiếm được 35.000 đến 40.000 đô la tiền lãi..
Đối với các cơ quan quản lý và nhiều người khác, những người bán đang ôm hàng với một kho dự trữ vật tư y tế trong một đại dịch. Các văn phòng tổng trưởng lý ở California, Washington và New York đều đang điều tra sự phân chia giá liên quan đến coronavirus. Luật cấm kiểm soát giá của California khiến người bán tăng giá hơn 10% sau khi các viên chức tuyên bố tình trạng khẩn cấp. Luật pháp của New York nghiêm cấm người bán tính phí một mức giá quá cao trong các trường hợp khẩn cấp.
Một viên chức tại văn phòng tổng trưởng lý Washington cho biết cơ quan này tin rằng họ có thể áp dụng luật bảo vệ người tiêu dùng của tiểu bang để kiện người bán, ngay cả khi họ không ở Washington, miễn là họ đang cố bán cho cư dân Washington.
TH
https://www.baocalitoday.com/giao-duc-gia-dinh/om-hang-17-700-chai-nuoc-rua-tay-kho-va-khong-biet-ban-chung-o-dau.html
He Has 17,700 Bottles of Hand Sanitizer and Nowhere to Sell Them
On March 1, the day after the first coronavirus death in the United States, brothers Matt and Noah Colvin set out in a silver SUV
to pick up
some hand sanitizer. Driving around Chattanooga, Tennessee, they hit a
Dollar Tree, then a Walmart, a Staples and a Home Depot. At each store,
they cleaned out the shelves.
Over the next three days, Noah Colvin 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, mostly from “little hole-in-the-wall dollar stores in the backwoods,” his brother said. “The major metro areas were cleaned out.”
Matt Colvin stayed home near Chattanooga, preparing for pallets of even more wipes and sanitizer he had ordered, and starting to list them on Amazon. Colvin said he had posted 300 bottles of hand sanitizer and immediately sold them all for between $8 and $70 each, multiples higher than what he had bought them for. To him, “it was crazy money.” To many others, it was profiteering from a pandemic.
The next day, Amazon pulled his items and thousands of other listings for sanitizer, wipes and face masks. The company suspended some of the sellers behind the listings and warned many others that if they kept running up prices, they’d lose their accounts. EBay soon followed with even stricter measures, prohibiting any U.S. sales of masks or sanitizer.
Now, while millions of people search in vain for hand sanitizer to protect themselves from the spread of the coronavirus, Colvin is sitting on 17,700 bottles of the stuff with little idea where to sell them.
“It’s been a huge amount of whiplash,” he said. “From being in a situation where what I’ve got coming and going could potentially put my family in a really good place financially to ‘What the heck am I going to do with all of this?’”
Over the next three days, Noah Colvin 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, mostly from “little hole-in-the-wall dollar stores in the backwoods,” his brother said. “The major metro areas were cleaned out.”
Matt Colvin stayed home near Chattanooga, preparing for pallets of even more wipes and sanitizer he had ordered, and starting to list them on Amazon. Colvin said he had posted 300 bottles of hand sanitizer and immediately sold them all for between $8 and $70 each, multiples higher than what he had bought them for. To him, “it was crazy money.” To many others, it was profiteering from a pandemic.
The next day, Amazon pulled his items and thousands of other listings for sanitizer, wipes and face masks. The company suspended some of the sellers behind the listings and warned many others that if they kept running up prices, they’d lose their accounts. EBay soon followed with even stricter measures, prohibiting any U.S. sales of masks or sanitizer.
Now, while millions of people search in vain for hand sanitizer to protect themselves from the spread of the coronavirus, Colvin is sitting on 17,700 bottles of the stuff with little idea where to sell them.
“It’s been a huge amount of whiplash,” he said. “From being in a situation where what I’ve got coming and going could potentially put my family in a really good place financially to ‘What the heck am I going to do with all of this?’”
Colvin is one of probably thousands of sellers who have amassed
stockpiles of hand sanitizer and crucial respirator masks that many
hospitals are now rationing, according to interviews with eight Amazon
sellers and posts in private Facebook and Telegram groups from dozens
more. Amazon said it had recently removed hundreds of thousands of
listings and suspended thousands of sellers’ accounts for price gouging
related to the coronavirus.Amazon, eBay, Walmart and other online-commerce platforms are trying
to stop their sellers from making excessive profits from a public health
crisis. While the companies aimed to discourage people from hoarding
such products and jacking up their prices, many sellers had already
cleared out their local stores and started selling the goods online.
Now both the physical and digital shelves are nearly empty. Mikeala Kozlowski, a nurse in Dudley, Massachusetts, has been searching for hand sanitizer since before she gave birth to her first child, Nora, on March 5. When she searched stores, which were sold out, she skipped getting gas to avoid handling the pump. And when she checked Amazon, she couldn’t find it for less than $50.
“You’re being selfish, hoarding resources for your own personal gain,” she said of the sellers.
Sites like Amazon and eBay have given rise to a growing industry of independent sellers who snatch up discounted or hard-to-find items in stores to post online and sell around the world.
These sellers call it retail arbitrage, a 21st-century career that has adults buying up everything from limited-run cereals to Fingerling Monkeys, a once hot toy.
The bargain hunters look for anything they can
sell at a sharp markup. In recent weeks, they found perhaps their
biggest opportunity: a pandemic.
As they watched the list of Amazon’s most popular searches crowd with terms like “Purell,” “N95 mask” and “Clorox wipes,” sellers said, they did what they had learned to do: Suck up supply and sell it for what the market would bear.
Initially, the strategy worked. For several weeks, prices soared for some of the top results to searches for sanitizer, masks and wipes on Amazon, according to a New York Times analysis of historical prices from Jungle Scout, which tracks data for Amazon sellers. The data shows that both Amazon and third-party sellers like Colvin increased their prices, which then mostly dropped when Amazon took action against price gouging this month.
At the high prices, people still bought the products en masse, and Amazon took a cut of roughly 15% and eBay roughly 10%, depending on the price and the seller.
Then the companies, pressured by growing criticism from regulators and customers, cracked down. After the measures last week, Amazon went further Wednesday, restricting sales of any coronavirus-related products from certain sellers.
“Price gouging is a clear violation of our policies, unethical, and in some areas, illegal,” Amazon said in a statement. “In addition to terminating these third party accounts, we welcome the opportunity to work directly with states attorneys general to prosecute bad actors.”
Colvin, 36, a former Air Force technical sergeant, said he started selling on Amazon in 2015, developing it into a six-figure career by selling Nike shoes and pet toys, and by following trends.
In early February, as headlines announced the coronavirus’ spread in China, Colvin spotted a chance to capitalize. A nearby liquidation firm was selling 2,000 “pandemic packs,” leftovers from a defunct company. Each came with 50 face masks, four small bottles of hand sanitizer and a thermometer. The price was $5 a pack. Colvin haggled it to $3.50 and bought them all.
He quickly sold all 2,000 of the 50-packs of masks on eBay, pricing them from $40 to $50 each, and sometimes higher. He declined to disclose his profit on the record but said it was substantial.
The success stoked his appetite. When he saw the panicked public starting to pounce on sanitizer and wipes, he and his brother set out to stock up.
Elsewhere, other Amazon sellers were doing the same.
Chris Anderson, an Amazon seller in central Pennsylvania, said he and a friend had driven around Ohio, buying about 10,000 masks from stores. He used coupons to buy packs of 10 for around $15 each and resold them for $40 to $50. After Amazon’s cut and other costs, he estimates, he made a $25,000 profit.
Anderson is now holding 500 packs of antibacterial wipes after Amazon blocked him from selling them for $19 each, up from $16 weeks earlier. He bought the packs for $3 each.
Eric, a truck driver from Ohio who spoke on condition that his surname not be published because he feared Amazon would retaliate, said he had also collected about 10,000 masks at stores. He bought each 10-pack for about $20 and sold most for roughly $80 each, although some he priced at $125.
“Even at $125 a box, they were selling almost instantly,” he said. “It was mind-blowing as far as what you could charge.”
He estimates he made $35,000 to $40,000 in profit.
Now he has 1,000 more masks on order, but he’s not sure what to do with them. He said Amazon had been vague about what constituted price gouging, scaring away sellers who don’t want to risk losing their ability to sell on its site.
To regulators and many others, the sellers are sitting on a stockpile of medical supplies during a pandemic. The attorney general’s offices in California, Washington and New York are all investigating price gouging related to the coronavirus. California’s price-gouging law bars sellers from increasing prices by more than 10 percent after officials declare an emergency. New York’s law prohibits sellers from charging an “unconscionably excessive price” during emergencies.
An official at the Washington attorney general’s office said the agency believed it could apply the state’s consumer-protection law to sue platforms or sellers, even if they aren’t in Washington, as long as they were trying to sell to Washington residents.
Colvin does not believe he was price gouging. While he charged $20 on Amazon for two bottles of Purell that retail for $1 each, he said people forget that his price includes his labor, Amazon’s fees and about $10 in shipping. (Alcohol-based sanitizer is pricey to ship because officials consider it a hazardous material.)
Current price-gouging laws “are not built for today’s day and age,” Colvin said. “They’re built for Billy Bob’s gas station doubling the amount he charges for gas during a hurricane.”
He added, “Just because it cost me $2 in the store doesn’t mean it’s not going to cost me $16 to get it to your door.”
But what about the morality of hoarding products that can prevent the spread of the virus, just to turn a profit?
He thought about it more.
“I honestly feel like it’s a public service,” he added. “I’m being paid for my public service.”
As for his stockpile, Colvin said he would now probably try to sell it locally.
“If I can make a slight profit, that’s fine,” he said. “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.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
© 2020 The New York Times Company
Now both the physical and digital shelves are nearly empty. Mikeala Kozlowski, a nurse in Dudley, Massachusetts, has been searching for hand sanitizer since before she gave birth to her first child, Nora, on March 5. When she searched stores, which were sold out, she skipped getting gas to avoid handling the pump. And when she checked Amazon, she couldn’t find it for less than $50.
“You’re being selfish, hoarding resources for your own personal gain,” she said of the sellers.
Sites like Amazon and eBay have given rise to a growing industry of independent sellers who snatch up discounted or hard-to-find items in stores to post online and sell around the world.
These sellers call it retail arbitrage, a 21st-century career that has adults buying up everything from limited-run cereals to Fingerling Monkeys, a once hot toy.
As they watched the list of Amazon’s most popular searches crowd with terms like “Purell,” “N95 mask” and “Clorox wipes,” sellers said, they did what they had learned to do: Suck up supply and sell it for what the market would bear.
Initially, the strategy worked. For several weeks, prices soared for some of the top results to searches for sanitizer, masks and wipes on Amazon, according to a New York Times analysis of historical prices from Jungle Scout, which tracks data for Amazon sellers. The data shows that both Amazon and third-party sellers like Colvin increased their prices, which then mostly dropped when Amazon took action against price gouging this month.
At the high prices, people still bought the products en masse, and Amazon took a cut of roughly 15% and eBay roughly 10%, depending on the price and the seller.
Then the companies, pressured by growing criticism from regulators and customers, cracked down. After the measures last week, Amazon went further Wednesday, restricting sales of any coronavirus-related products from certain sellers.
“Price gouging is a clear violation of our policies, unethical, and in some areas, illegal,” Amazon said in a statement. “In addition to terminating these third party accounts, we welcome the opportunity to work directly with states attorneys general to prosecute bad actors.”
Colvin, 36, a former Air Force technical sergeant, said he started selling on Amazon in 2015, developing it into a six-figure career by selling Nike shoes and pet toys, and by following trends.
In early February, as headlines announced the coronavirus’ spread in China, Colvin spotted a chance to capitalize. A nearby liquidation firm was selling 2,000 “pandemic packs,” leftovers from a defunct company. Each came with 50 face masks, four small bottles of hand sanitizer and a thermometer. The price was $5 a pack. Colvin haggled it to $3.50 and bought them all.
He quickly sold all 2,000 of the 50-packs of masks on eBay, pricing them from $40 to $50 each, and sometimes higher. He declined to disclose his profit on the record but said it was substantial.
The success stoked his appetite. When he saw the panicked public starting to pounce on sanitizer and wipes, he and his brother set out to stock up.
Elsewhere, other Amazon sellers were doing the same.
Chris Anderson, an Amazon seller in central Pennsylvania, said he and a friend had driven around Ohio, buying about 10,000 masks from stores. He used coupons to buy packs of 10 for around $15 each and resold them for $40 to $50. After Amazon’s cut and other costs, he estimates, he made a $25,000 profit.
Anderson is now holding 500 packs of antibacterial wipes after Amazon blocked him from selling them for $19 each, up from $16 weeks earlier. He bought the packs for $3 each.
Eric, a truck driver from Ohio who spoke on condition that his surname not be published because he feared Amazon would retaliate, said he had also collected about 10,000 masks at stores. He bought each 10-pack for about $20 and sold most for roughly $80 each, although some he priced at $125.
“Even at $125 a box, they were selling almost instantly,” he said. “It was mind-blowing as far as what you could charge.”
He estimates he made $35,000 to $40,000 in profit.
Now he has 1,000 more masks on order, but he’s not sure what to do with them. He said Amazon had been vague about what constituted price gouging, scaring away sellers who don’t want to risk losing their ability to sell on its site.
To regulators and many others, the sellers are sitting on a stockpile of medical supplies during a pandemic. The attorney general’s offices in California, Washington and New York are all investigating price gouging related to the coronavirus. California’s price-gouging law bars sellers from increasing prices by more than 10 percent after officials declare an emergency. New York’s law prohibits sellers from charging an “unconscionably excessive price” during emergencies.
An official at the Washington attorney general’s office said the agency believed it could apply the state’s consumer-protection law to sue platforms or sellers, even if they aren’t in Washington, as long as they were trying to sell to Washington residents.
Colvin does not believe he was price gouging. While he charged $20 on Amazon for two bottles of Purell that retail for $1 each, he said people forget that his price includes his labor, Amazon’s fees and about $10 in shipping. (Alcohol-based sanitizer is pricey to ship because officials consider it a hazardous material.)
Current price-gouging laws “are not built for today’s day and age,” Colvin said. “They’re built for Billy Bob’s gas station doubling the amount he charges for gas during a hurricane.”
He added, “Just because it cost me $2 in the store doesn’t mean it’s not going to cost me $16 to get it to your door.”
But what about the morality of hoarding products that can prevent the spread of the virus, just to turn a profit?
Colvin said he was simply fixing
“inefficiencies in the marketplace.” Some areas of the country need
these products more than others, and he’s helping send the supply toward
the demand.
“There’s a crushing overwhelming demand in certain cities right now,”
he said. “The Dollar General in the middle of nowhere outside of
Lexington, Kentucky, doesn’t have that.”He thought about it more.
“I honestly feel like it’s a public service,” he added. “I’m being paid for my public service.”
As for his stockpile, Colvin said he would now probably try to sell it locally.
“If I can make a slight profit, that’s fine,” he said. “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.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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