This time it will be different...

As someone who's just getting into the mask distribution business, this is accurate. I had to look through so many suppliers to find a reasonable price. I am not sure about hand sanitizer, but the masks are getting passed through like 10 re-sellers who are selling to each other until the product finally reaches the consumer. Each re-distributor adds a small margin, couple cents to the price they bought it at. The final distributor (usually a retailer) has to absorb all the previous margins and then add a few cents themselves to make a profit. You can see how crazy it gets. There's also a serious shortage of the melt-blown fabric that's used in mask production of masks which a huge contributing factor to the price.

Sanitizer is being sold at ridiculously high prices by wholesalers which reflects the retail price.

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