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QUEENS WEEKLY, MARCH 22, 2020
A “No hand sanitizer and wipes” sign hangs in the window of a Bushwick Family Dollar. Photo: Max Parrott/QNS
Some Queens dollar stores report that price
gouging often stems from the supplier-side
BY MAX PARROTT
For weeks, hand sanitizer,
face masks, Lysol spray,
disinfectant wipes and
even gallon jugs of water
have become scarce across
New York City as residents
stockpile their apartments
for self-quarantine. In response
to reports of price
gouging on these items,
Mayor de Blasio has vowed
to get tough on the culprits.
The Department of Consumer
and Worker Protection
put an emergency rule
into effect that makes price
gouging illegal for a number
of items needed to stem
the spread of coronavirus.
But while the mayor’s
announcement took aim at
retailers, dollar stores in the
Ridgewood area struggling
to comply said that they are
not often the source of the
inflated prices. Price gouging
begins higher on the
supply chain with wholesalers
and distributors that
sell to discount stores, they
say.
When a customer walked
up to the counter of U2 99
Cent Store in Glendale asking
for isopropyl alcohol,
store manager Steven Ng
said that he stopped stocking
it because he himself
was getting gouged on the
wholesale price.
“We have to make a living,
too. Before we sold for
$2 and right now the wholesale
price is $2. If we sell it
for $2.99 people complain.
What are we going to do?
Sell it for $1.99? We’re losing
money. So I’m not going to
carry anything,” Ng said.
The mayor’s new law has
presented 99-cent stores,
who often rely on a competitive
market of wholesalers
for their stock, with a
choice: continue to stock the
items at a loss or negligible
profit or stop stocking them
at all.
Out of the eight dollar
stores that QNS visited,
only one had a supply of
hand sanitizer that it had
saved from a shipment that
the store got before the last
week of closures and directives
to self-quarantine.
Many of the shop owners
said they are choosing the
latter option and leaving
their shelves that once contained
wipes and hand sanitizer
empty.
“If they’re charging more
money, what am I going to
do?” said Saleh Hassan, the
manager of Glendale 99 Cent
on Myrtle Avenue.
Hassan said that he relies
on salespeople from
wholesalers who typically
travel into his shop to update
him on their stock. His
store has stayed out of wipes
and sanitizer for weeks because
his wholesaler didn’t
have a supply or was inflating
prices that he was unwilling
to pay.
The problem is unique
to stores that rely on a loose
network of wholesalers to
supply their products. Family
Dollar on Broadway and
Grove Street in Bushwick,
for instance, doesn’t have
that problem. A cashier said
that they rely on a chainbased
distribution system
that drops off a limited supply
of the sought-after items
every few days.
Ng said that he gets his
product supply from a number
of wholesale warehouses
that straddle the Brooklyn-
Queens border on Flushing
Avenue, but declined to
identify which specific outlets
are inflating their prices.
He said that he’s stopped
selling 33-ounce bottles of
hand sanitizer at the price
point set by the wholesaler
because customers were
complaining.
“If we get it for $5 and we
sell it for $5.99, they’re going
to blame us. They said, ‘It’s
price gouging. I’m calling
311,’” Ng said.
According to DCWP, the
agency has received more
than 1,000 complaints about
price gouging since the first
declaration on March 5. The
agency’s rule makes it illegal
to increase prices by 10
percent or more. It encourages
consumers who are
overcharged to file a complaint
at nyc.gov/dcwp or by
contacting 311.
“Now is the time for us
to come together, not take
advantage of each other for
a profit but we continue to
hear about and see empty
shelves and price gouging,”
said DCWP Commissioner
Lorelei Salas in a press release.
Asked about the concerns
raised by the dollar
store owners, a spokesperson
DCWP reiterated that
the agency is focusing on
brick-and-mortar retailers
that are price gouging, but
conceded that the new rule
would apply to suppliers if
those retailers can demonstrate
that they were only
passing along exorbitant
price increases from their
suppliers.
The spokesperson said
that the agencies would consider
what its enforcement
options may be under these
circumstances on a case-bycase
basis.
Reach reporter Max Parrott
by e-mail at mparrott@
schnepsmedia.com or by
phone at (718) 260-2507.
/dcwp
/schnepsmedia.com
