(Photo : REUTERS/Nicholas Pfosi/File Photo)

As the health care workers, more popularly called today as the frontliners, beg for more persona protective equipment (PPE), specifically the N95 face masks, for protection from the infection of COVID-19, a Texas firm found one seller who claimed to have had at least two million masks on hand and discreetly offered them for sake at a shocking price of $6 per piece. Before the widespread pandemic, each mask was sold for only around $1.

Typically, a big corporation would spend a dollar (or even less) for an N95 face mask, especially if it purchased at least a million of them. Unfortunately, these are not the typical times, and the pitch from Hatfield and Co., an industrial supplier, to sell around 2 million facial masks to a big oil industry player in the US last week was not the typical offer. Based on interviews and sales documents, the supplier asked for $6 million with at least one million masks for a minimum order and a choice of purchasing 2 million for almost $13 million.

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Overpriced?

In these trying times when the COVID-19 pandemic is swiftly spreading across the nation and the frontliners are desperate for the N95 face masks which can filter out, no less than 95 percent of airborne elements to shield themselves and the sick, critics say, a cost such as this one, "smacks of racketeering" and price extorting by somebody who is in the supply chain. A salesperson in the industry, familiar with the pitch of Hatfield and Co. but is not authorized to speak to the media said, with the said price offered, it is not only marked up like 50 cents, and added that this indeed, "is highway robbery." 

Hatfield and Co.'s defense is that it said, it did not mark up the face masks excessively or involve price extortion. The company also told the Texas Tribune, its own supplier had its "terms and conditions" set for the sale of the said products. It declined to name though the supplier. Neither did it quantify the amount it stood to revenue, referring to its contractual agreements.

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Face Masks Stored all over Texas

Meanwhile, the salesman of Hatfield and Co. based in Beaumont, Brad Lindeman, who is also the contact listed for the proposed sale said via a short phone interview on Sunday, the firm had access to an unrevealed number of N95 face masks, stored in warehouses located all over Texas, as well as the other states. Lindeman said some face masks are stored in Florida, Houston, and Dallas, among others. The inventories, the Hatfield salesman said, are continuously moving and thus, it is quite difficult to divulge the exact quantity. Lindeman also added a team of doctors has the masks although he did not elaborate much on it.

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Meanwhile, Lindeman also mentioned about 3M, a Minnesota-based manufacturer, which was the original source of the face masks and one of the biggest manufacturers of the said products, did not return calls immediately. In relation to this, 3M chief executive officer, Mike Roman asked the state officials and federal to crack down on price extortion saying, 3M "has not and will not increase" its price for the face masks currently being used to help fight COVID-19.