Amazon and Walmart sellers are hawking coronavirus-themed T-shirts about social distancing while workers protest about safety conditions

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Amazon and Walmart sellers are hawking coronavirus-themed T-shirts about social distancing while workers protest about safety conditions
Amazon
  • Dozens of coronavirus-themed products are being sold by third-party sellers on Amazon and Walmart's website.
  • While state and federal agencies have cracked down on price-gouging amid the coronavirus pandemic, there has been no guidance around businesses making money from selling coronavirus-themed products.
  • Etsy is one of the platforms to have taken action by removing all products sold on its site that attempted "to exploit the developing coronavirus situation."
  • These items products referencing social distancing are being sold on Amazon and Walmart as retail workers across the US protest about the safety of working in stores and warehouses during the crisis.
  • Amazon and Walmart did not return Business Insider's request for comment.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Search for a "social distancing sweatshirt" or a "coronavirus T-shirt" on either Amazon or Walmart's site and you'll find dozens of products available for purchase with coronavirus-themed slogans and messages emblazoned across the front.

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"I was social distancing before it was cool," read several shirts.

"I'm not lazy, I'm busy saving the world," others say.

Or even: "Straight outta Wuhan," a reference to the Chinese city where the virus is thought to have started.

The idea that retailers are using the pandemic for financial gain is clearly controversial. And while states and federal agencies have taken action to crack down on price-gouging at major retailers, including Amazon and Walmart, there has been no guidance around businesses making money from selling coronavirus-themed products.

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Amazon and Walmart did not return Business Insider's request for comment.

Walmart

E-commerce platform Etsy is one of the more prominent retailers to have taken against this on its own site. At the beginning of March, the company said that it would be removing any products from its site that referenced COVID-19 or coronavirus.

This didn't include only products claiming to defend against coronavirus but also any coronavirus-themed merchandise that was attempting to "exploit the developing coronavirus situation," a spokesperson said at the time. BuzzFeed was first to report the news.

The items that Business Insider reviewed on Amazon and Walmart's site were all listed by third-party sellers. Amazon, in particular, is known for having issues policing its third-party marketplace. In the past, it has been called out for allowing offensive or racist products to slip through the gaps and be listed on its site, as well as items that were deemed "unsafe" by federal agencies.

But perhaps most controversially, these items referencing social distancing are being sold on Amazon and Walmart's site as retail workers across the US protest about the safety of working in stores and warehouses during the crisis.

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