Pensioner charged £16 for small bottle of hand sanitiser.

A pensioner from Rainham looking for a hand sanitiser for himself and other pensioners was asked to pay £16.95p for a small bottle that other shops were charging £1.49p for.

Ron 66 years old, goes every day to a cafe in Harrow Lodge park to meet other pensioners for the company. He went shopping for a hand sanitiser for himself and for his group of friends and was horrified to be told that the small bottle cost £16.95p!

Ron told the Havering Daily: “I meet with with a group of pensioners every day at the cafe in Harrow Lodge. As I am the most mobile, I was asked to buy all the hand sanitisers for the rest of the group.

“I went to my nearest chemist to buy them but they didn’t have any. I went to Elm Park Sainsbury’s and all the other supermarkets but none of them had any. I then went to Savers who informed me that the pump sanistisers that cost £1.49p had all been bought out by the chemist near the roundabout in Elm Park.

“So I went there to buy the sanitisers for myself and my team of pensioners. I saw the woman in the shop and asked her if she had any. She responded yes and went behind the counter and took out the small bottle. I was glad that she had them until she informed me that they cost £16.95p for one.

“I was disgusted with her and told her how she was profiteering on people’s misery. She knows that people are in need of this at the moment and because of this she is selling these bottles at these prices. Yesterday I was informed that another elderly person went in there to buy a bottle of the same hand sanitiser and she wanted to charge them £8.99p!

“I was so disgusted with this, this is despicable and as a result I contacted trading standards and passed on all her information. Unfortunately, they said that as disgusting as this is, it is not breaking any law. They did say they would contact her but sadly nothing can be done.”

Ron then went across the road to Savers to purchase similar sanitisers that cost £1.49p.

Ron was left angered at the way this shop could profit from the current health issues we are facing.

He finished: “I am absolutely disgusted by the way she is profiteering from this horrendous situation. We are a group of pensioners that wanted hand sanitisers, nobody should be exploiting others like this.”

Trevor McKeever from South Hornchurch Labour Action team told the Havering Daily: “This issue has been bought to my attention by a local resident. I find it abhorrent that people are exploiting the elderly due to the current health situation.

“This needs to stop and there should be a law that stops the exploitation of the elderly and vulnerable.”