“Sold out.” “Out of Stock.” “Maximum of Two Per Customer.” If you have recently been to a drug store, supermarket or big box store, chances are you noticed the empty shelves that once housed basic personal hygiene and household products like hand sanitizer, antibacterial hand soap and disinfectant wipes. You may have even seen signs imposing quantity limits on these products in an often feeble attempt to discourage customers from hoarding. Almost overnight, basic over-the-counter products we took for granted became hot commodities.

Just as quickly, this sudden surge in demand created a domino effect of problems. As the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) emphasized the importance of hand hygiene, hand sanitizer shortages affected not only household consumers but health care providers throughout the country. Those who were able to get their hands on a bottle often saw price gouging, particularly in online marketplaces like Amazon. In extreme cases, a single bottle of hand sanitizer that was once $4.50 was now a whopping $30 to $50.