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Safeway Reaches Settlement After Alleged Price Gouging Of Hand Sanitizer During Pandemic

It seems like it was just yesterday when everyone was buying up all of the toilet paper and the hand sanitizer in the stores. Roomies, if y’all forgot about that time, let me remind y’all real quick! Not only were those items a hot commodity, but they were also priced higher than average.

The grocery chain Safeway was one of those stores that allegedly got caught price gouging, and now they have to pay up for the increased price In northern California. In two counties, Alameda and Contra Consta. The prices increased by over 50% of Safeway’s wholesale cost, prohibited by an April 2020 emergency order issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

According to Abc News 7, the Bay Area customers allegedly paid $5.99 for Raff Distillerie brand hand sanitizer and $9.99 for Ocean Fresh brand hand sanitizer. Prosecutors say the prices were $.47 and $1.01 over the legally acceptable prices. Both county’s district attorney’s offices confirmed today that Safeway would pay about $81,000 in civil penalties and about $62,000 in restitution for the alleged gouging of hand sanitizer. Safeway did not admit any wrongdoing and cooperated with the investigation.

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China Lovelace