Manhattan hardware store hit with fine for coronavirus price hikes

The Garment District hardware store that sells Purell hand sanitizer for nearly $80 a bottle was slapped with a city fine Saturday — because they’re now allegedly jacking up the price of face masks.
Investigators from the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection visited the store a day after The Post revealed the store’s astronomical prices in the wake of the coronavirus epidemic.
But a worker insisted the shop is not gouging — and won’t drop prices.
“We’re gouging according to them,” the defiant general manager at Scheman & Grant Hardware at Eighth Avenue and 38th Street said.
The store, an Ace Hardware franchises, is selling 1200-milliliter bottles of Purell for $79.99.

Store owner Andrew Scheman claims that Ace Hardware was offering the same product online for $54.99, though it’s sold out and it is unclear whether that price was for one or two bottles.
“We have ZERO tolerance for anyone taking advantage of an epidemic to gouge prices,” Mayor de Blasio posted Saturday night, alongside a re-tweet of The Post’s story.
“Violations have already been issued to businesses and there will be consequences if this continues.”
The store’s outrageous pricing even caught the eye of Gov. Cuomo in Albany.
“We have reports of stores selling hand sanitizer for $80 a bottle,” he said during a coronavirus-update press conference in Albany Saturday, referencing The Post’s exclusive.
He warned that the State Police will be investigating price gouging reports and yanking licenses when warranted. “You will be caught,” he said.
Scheman & Grant Hardware was also offering jumbo-sized, 2-liter bottles of Purell for $109, but sold out on Friday.

Saturday’s city fine — up to $500 — was for selling packs of ten 3M respirator masks for $60.
The mask ten-packs go for only $22.97 on competitor Home Depot’s website. Scheman maintains that some vendors on Amazon are selling the same masks for more than $60.
Preying on people who are concerned for the health of themselves and their loved ones for a profit will not be tolerated,” DCWP Commissioner Lorelei Salas said.
Shoppers welcomed the sting.
“It’s crazy. They just keep raising the prices. I should go to Home Depot,” customer Mario Moe griped, even as he shopped. “Cuomo should do something about this. He runs the state.  He should give them a fine.”

Cuomo told reporters Saturday that he had directed state and local police departments to investigate unfair price hikes, and established a toll-free hotline at 1-800-697-1220 where shoppers can reported suspect price gouging.

“I want businesses to be aware that you could lose your license for price gouging. This is serious. It’s not just price gouging, it’s price gouging in an emergency situation where you are being exploitive of the public,” Cuomo said at a press conference.

“Not only is it disrespectful, it’s also illegal, and you will be caught,” the governor said.
Store owner Andrew Schemen told The Post in an email Saturday night that he intends to fight the fine — in court, if necessary.
“My business is 100 years old; I have never been accused of anything like this,” he wrote, insisting that his prices are fair.
“My margin percentages are the same as they were before anyone had ever heard of coronavirus, so I have not changed my business model, and thus have not price-gouged” as defined by city statute, he wrote.
“There is absolutely price gouging going on but it is at the wholesale level of the supply chain.”