How Amazon raised prices to profit from the pandemic

by Alex Harman

Part 8 - Amazon Is Engaged in Price Gouging on Products It Sells Directly

While the initial media and law enforcement focus of price gouging was on third-party sellers, this report establishes that Amazon is directly selling items at significantly above the regular market price despite publicly stating that the company is fighting price gouging.

This report will focus on essential products, that would be covered under an existing or proposed price gouging statute, that saw the most notable price increases during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Note: All products in this section were listed as “sold by Amazon,” and not sold by third-party vendors.

Disposable Face Masks Package: 1000% Price Increase

It is difficult to make apples-to-apples comparisons of the prices of disposable face masks because those sold during the pandemic tend to be from new sources. Nonetheless, roughly equivalent products are priced far higher than they were before the onset of the pandemic. In addition, the sourcing for the products appears to have shifted to unknown imported brands of questionable quality and reliability.

The example below was first made available on Amazon in April and has been priced as high as $39.99. Prices for this type of package of 50 masks generally were around $4 before the pandemic.

The graph below shows the Amazon price over time and indicates that it was sold by Amazon, not a third-party seller. Many of the reviews for this product indicate that the straps fall off and that the packaging is open or does not contain the specified amount of masks.

Other retailers have largely sold out of this type of product, but where we were able to find comparable products, the price was similar. This is a disturbing example of a price rising due to demand and holding despite a prohibition on exactly this type of price gouging.

Hand Sanitizer: 48% Price Increase

Major brand name hand sanitizer is largely unavailable on Amazon.com. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a strong warning against more than 100 hand sanitizer products because of methanol contamination. Consumers attempting to purchase hand sanitizer now face the difficulty of finding a product that is not only safe and available but also affordable.

On August 16, 2020, Amazon sold a 12-pack of 8oz. “Germ-X Hand Sanitizer” for $35.38. The same day, a similar 8oz. Germ-X hand sanitizer bottle was sold for $1.99 on another retail site. Notwithstanding typical quantity package discounts, this reflects a significant increase over the expected price.

Disinfectant Spray: 87% Price Increase

Antibacterial disinfectant sprays continue to be hard to find on online retailers including Amazon.com. This “Bissell Woolite Advanced Stain and Odor Remover + Sanitize” is categorized under carpet cleaning but claims to kill 99.9% of bacteria. It has been available on Amazon for over five years priced at $6.99 but has been marked up routinely since March 19, 2020, when it was priced at $13.04.

Antibacterial Soap: 470% Price Increase

Antibacterial hand soap has become more available since the shortages at the beginning of the pandemic, but Amazon.com still has limited options available. One example is “Dial Liquid Hand Soap, Spring Water, 7.5 Fl. Oz” which has been priced on Amazon.com in recent months as high as $7 and as low as $1.49.

Nitrile Disposable Gloves: 336% Price Increase

The pack of 100 “Safeguard Nitrile Disposable Gloves” is sold on Amazon.com for $29.95 but has previously been sold by Amazon for as little as $8.91.

Toilet Paper: 528% Price Increase

Toilet paper is arguably the most notorious product impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. From empty store shelves, to customers fighting over the last package, the story of hoarding toilet paper was a frequent subject for journalists. One contributing factor to the shortages was shift from work to home as business grade toilet paper is a different product with a different supply chain than that sold for home use.

Amazon has recently sold “Scott 1000 Sheets Per Roll, 8 Toilet Paper Rolls” for as much as $36.39. This represents a 528% price increase over the $6.89 that other retailers are have charged for the same product, and a 260% increase over the lowest price at which Amazon has sold this item.

Amazon recently has sold “Quilted Northern Ultra Soft and Strong Toilet Paper, Mega Rolls, 12 Count of 328 2-Ply Sheets Per Roll” for $32.25, a 283% increase over the recent low of $11.38.

Amazon recently has sold “Quilted Northern [Ultra Plush] Bathroom Tissue, 18 Count” for $37.93, a 217% increase over the recent lowest price of $17.48.

Amazon recently has sold “Quilted Northern Ultra Plush Toilet Paper, 24 Mega Rolls” for $41.96, a 76% increase over the lowest price of $23.78 that Amazon has charged.

Paper Towels: 303% Price Increase

Like with toilet paper, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic retail stores quickly sold out of paper towels. Amazon recently sold “Brawny Tear-A-Square Paper Towels, 8 Rolls” for $46.94, a 303% increase over the recent low price of $15.49.

Amazon recently sold “Sparkle 2-Ply Perforated Roll Paper Towels,” 15 roll case for $42.45, a 201% increase over the January 2020 price of $20.99.

Flour: 425% Price Increase

One of the unique features of the COVID-19 pandemic is how it changed behavior over a sustained period of time. Because so many people spent so much time at home with their families, habits and patterns changed. A surprising example was the increase in home baking, and the shortages of key ingredients like flour, yeast, corn starch, and sugar. Unlike some of the hoarding and panic buying that led to shortages of other more obvious products, the shortages in baking ingredients have been due to an actual increase in consumption and have been sustained.

Amazon recently sold “Pillsbury BEST All Purpose Unbleached Flour, 5 Pound (Pack of 8)” for $80.35. This is just over $10 per bag of flour that typically sells for as little as $2.36 at other online retailers. This is a 425% increase.

Amazon recently sold “King Arthur Flour All-Purpose Flour, 10 Pound” for $19.87, a 317% increase over of the $6.27 other retailers have charged for this item.

Sugar: 520% Price Increase

Like with flour, shortages and increased demand have been common with sugar. Amazon recently sold “Domino Pure Cane Confectioners Powdered Sugar, 1 lb” for $5.56 per box, representing a 520% increase over the $1.07 other retailers have priced the same item.

Corn Starch: 1010% Price Increase

Another baking ingredient that Amazon has been selling at a significant increase is corn starch. Recently, Amazon sold “Clabber Girl Corn Starch, 6.5 Ounce” for $8.99, a stunning 1010% increase over the $0.89 that other retailers charge for this item.

Source, links, references:

https://www.citizen.org/article/prime-gouging/

[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][9][10][11][12][13]

Comments

How The CIA & Mossad Set Up Sudan for Genocide since the 1990s

MintPress News Sudan is being systematically destroyed - not by accident, but by design. This investigation reveals how US imperialism, through Israeli and UAE proxies, has engineered Sudan's collapse since the 1990s to crush the axis of resistance, block China's Belt and Road, and loot Africa's resources families are killed, children starve, and the west profits.

F-35s & AI Chips: How MBS Outplayed Washington & Beijing

GVS Deep Dive Saudi Arabia just secured two of the most powerful assets in modern geopolitics: the U.S. F-35 stealth fighter and tens of thousands of Nvidia’s most advanced AI chips. Washington hoped this would pull Riyadh firmly back into the American orbit. But the outcome is something neither side fully expected: Mohammad bin Salman outplayed both Washington and Beijing — and used the great-power rivalry to his advantage.

Greece, Palestine & Zionism: FPTV Reports from Athens

Free Palestine TV Laith Marouf & Rabih Ghannam travel to Athens, Greece, and take a walking tour with local activists Evan Katsounis and Maria Kosmidi, to discover the rich history of anti-Zionist and anti-Fascist actions in the city, as well as the current Zionist incursion into the property sector and the counter actions directed at the presence of these War Criminals on the streets of the city.

Trump Welcomes Syrian Leader & “REFORMED” TERRORIST To White House!

The Jimmy Dore Show President Donald Trump is planning a White House welcome for Syria’s new president, former al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, who was installed after the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad. Jimmy Dore argues that the U.S. and its allies, including Israel, have long funded extremist groups such as ISIS and al-Qaeda to serve foreign policy interests in the Middle East, so the embrace of al-Sharaa makes sense, even if it might confuse anyone who thought we took seriously the so-called “War on Terror.” He and Americans’ Comedian Kurt Metzger contrast Trump’s willingness to meet with alleged terrorists to his refusal to engage in dialogue with leaders like Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, accusing U.S. policy of hypocrisy and imperialism.

Trump BLEW IT: Israel, Candace Owens & Epstein BURY MAGA (But Not How You Think)

Danny Haiphong Trump has bent the knee to Israel for the last time. Patrick Henningsen exposes his horrid record and all the elements that has led to his rapidly coming collapse.

Trump RUINED: Israel First Lies & Economic Freefall Just ENDED MAGA

Danny Haiphong Tucker Carlson isn't the only journalist breaking with Trump. In this video, Patrick Henningsen goes scorched earth on Trump's massive betrayal of what he promised his "MAGA" base and blows the lid off how his massive lies serve as a cover up for a much bigger structural problem in America's 'Israel First' political system, what Tucker and major voices in elite MAGA won't tell you.

Zionists’ LONG HISTORY Of False Flags & STAGED Attacks!

The Jimmy Dore Show In recent years several alleged anti-Semitic incidents, including graffiti and vandalism, were later revealed to have been staged or “false flag” operations carried out by Jewish perpetrators to create sympathy or shift the public narrative in Israel’s favor. Jimmy Dore presents investigations that revealed hoaxes and uses them to argue that media and political institutions exploit victimhood to silence criticism of Israel. He then expands the discussion to accuse Israeli and Zionist figures of deceit in global politics and misinformation about Gaza. It ends with commentary that the term “anti‑Semitic” has lost meaning due to its politicization and misuse.

A response to misinformation on Nicaragua: it was a coup, not a ‘massacre’

There is so much misinformation in mainstream corporate media about recent events in Nicaragua that it is a pity that Mary Ellsberg’s article for Pulse has added to it with a seemingly leftish critique. Ellsberg claims that recent articles, including from this website, often “ paint a picture of the crisis in Nicaragua that is dangerously misleading. ” Unfortunately, her own article does just that. It looks at the situation entirely from the perspective of those opposing Daniel Ortega’s government while whitewashing their malevolent behavior and downplaying the levels of US support they have relied on. Her piece is an incomplete depiction of what is happening on the ground, ignoring many salient facts that have come to light and which have been outdated by recent events. The following is a brief response to Ellsberg’s main points from someone who lives in Nicaragua and has observed the situation directly and intimately: https://grayzoneproject.com/2018/08/15/a-res...

Racing Extinction

suggested by failedevolution.blogspot 18th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival Scientists predict that humanity’s footprint on the planet may cause the loss of 50% of all species by the end of the century. They believe we have entered the sixth major extinction in Earth’s history, following the fifth great extinction which took out the dinosaurs. Our era is called the Anthropocene, or “Age of Man,” because evidence shows that humanity has sparked a cataclysmic change of the world’s natural environment and animal life. Yet, we are the only ones who can stop the change we have created. The Oceanic Preservation Society (OPS), the group behind the Academy Award-winning film The Cove, is back with a new groundbreaking documentary. Joined by new innovators, this highly charged, impassioned collective of activists brings a voice to the thousands of species teetering on the very edge of life. The director has crafted an ambitious mission to clearly and artfu...

Mossad ‘in contact from very beginning’ with killers of Italian PM, reporter reveals

A roving reporter who covered Italy’s top politicians explains to The Grayzone how his country was reduced to a joint US-Israeli “aircraft carrier,” and raises troubling questions about an Israeli role in the killing of Prime Minister Aldo Moro. by Kit Klarenberg and Wyatt Reed Part 7 - Mossad continues Italian ops amid Gaza genocide Today, there is little trace of any pro-Arab tendencies in mainstream Italian politics. According to Salerno, the US and Israel no longer have any need to “destabilize Italy” as the country is economically “weak.” Rome’s government now is for all intents and purposes “a continuation, even an extension, of the old fascist regime,” he says, adding, “there are people in the government that have statues of Mussolini in their houses.” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has made clear she harbors little sympathy for the Palestinians, and little intention of recognizing a Palestinian state – even after it was revealed in November 2024 the Mossad ha...

the unbalanced evolution of homo sapiens

Search This Blog