A LOCAL seller is offering a small bottle of hand sanitizer for nearly £100 on an online auction site.
With supplies in supermarkets in short supply, people are turning to the internet to try and source the anti-bac gels in a bid to keep hands clean during the coronavirus pandemic.
Over the past fortnight, shelves at borough stores have been emptied of hand soap, sanitizer and anti-bacterial wipes, as people look to boost their cleaning habits.
Government advice remains that regular hand washing with soap and water is the best way to tackle the virus spread.
But people still want to buy the hand gels, which are particularly useful when out and about and regular hand washing facilities are not available.
Online auction sites such as eBay offer the chance to buy products, but as it is a buyer’s market, prices can be inflated.
Wokingham.Today searched for hand sanitizer available to buy within a five-mile radius from Wokingham Town Hall.
At the time of writing, the highest price for a 50ml bottle of handgel is an eye-watering £92.99 plus £1.99 for postage.
There is also a bidding war for nine bottles of Dettol hand sanitiser. There is almost three days left before this auction ends, and there have been 12 bids, bringing it to £38 plus £5.99 postage.
Superdrug offers the same gel for £1.79 per 50ml bottle, or £16.11.
But its basic range starts at 61p for 100ml, and can also be ordered online for collection in store.
A Sandhurst seller is offering a 15ml vial of unbranded hand sanitizer for £12 plus 70p delivery.
And people have been paying over the odds for bottles of Purell Advanced hand gel. The 300ml bottles usually retail around £4.50, but yesterday three people paid £39.99 on eBay.
Where supermarkets have hand gels in stock, customers are being restricted in the number of items they can take, with most stores having a two-item limit. Sainsbury’s, which had no items in stock in its Winnersh store this morning, has a five-item limit.
