6 MARCH 19, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Some Queens dollar stores report that price
gouging often stems from the supplier-side
BY MAX PARROTT
MPARROTT@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
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 oft en the source of the infl ated
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
A “No hand sanitizer and wipes” sign hangs in the window of a Bushwick
Family Dollar. Photo: Max Parrott/QNS
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 infl ating 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 chain-based distribution
system that drops off a limited
supply of the sought-aft er 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 specifi c outlets are infl ating
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 fi rst
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
fi le 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 profi t but we continue to
hear about and see empty shelves and
price gouging,” said DCWP Commissioner
Lorelei Salas.
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.
Holden calls for Creedmoor to become a triage center
BY MAX PARROTT
MPARROTT@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s call for additional
locations for triage centers
and increased hospital bed
capacity on Sunday, March 15, sparked
an idea for Councilman Robert Holden:
Creedmoor.
Creedmoor is a large, state-owned
site in Queens Village that includes a
psychiatric center and other buildings.
On Monday, with the number of coronavirus
cases in the state now at at least 950,
Holden called on the governor calling to
utilize Creedmoor as a triage center for
COVID-19 cases.
He wrote that he believed that the
under-utilized property could add
thousands of beds to the state’s current
hospital capacity. The complex has
nearly 10,000 beds, with potentially more
in the site’s several abandoned buildings,
according to Holden.
Part of the complex is Creedmoor’s
psychiatric center, once a massive institution
for the mentally ill. It currently
contains about 480 beds, according to
The City.
“The Creedmoor complex in northern
Queens has ample space, empty buildings
and recently constructed homes that
could serve as a triage center should the
need ever occur. I call on the governor
to seriously consider this proposition
as he prepares further action to curb
the spread of this deadly virus,” said
Holden, a member of the City Council
Health Committee.
Cuomo sent a letter to President Trump
calling on him to deploy the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers to create temporary
medical centers by retrofi tting existing
buildings like military bases or college
dormitories before the state’s healthcare
system becomes overwhelmed with
COVID-19 hospitalizations.
QNS fi le photo
/dcwp
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