Question

With the covid19 pandemic businesses used the opportunity to capitalize on patrons. One item that suddenly became in demand were masks. Because of this, pharmacies, and other businesses that usually stock surgical and face masks ran out of stock. It was then that persons started to get creative and made their own home-made masks. This proved to be a great alternative but required cloth and elastic.

Betty, a budding seamstress, wanted to make masks to sell, because her sewing business had declined. She already had scraps of cloth that could be used to make the masks, all she needed was elastic.  

Betty went to a nearby store, "Clothing and textiles", that sold the elastic and called for 50 yards of fine, 1/4 inch, elastic and 10 rolls of thread. Betty did not enquire about the price as she would normally buy these items and knew that the elastic was $20.00/yard and one thread cost $60.00. When Betty got to the cashier, the cashier told her that the total cost was $3,700.00. Betty told the cashier that that must have been a mistake. The cashier told Betty that due to the high demand for the items, the store raised the prices. Betty did not argue with the cashier but paid for the items that should have only cost her $1,600.00.

When Betty got home, she started to work on the masks. Betty made over 250 masks in one afternoon. While making the masks, Betty did not use any gloves, sanitizer or any other kind of sterilizing product. Without washing/laundering the finished masks, she packed each one of them in individual plastic bags and sealed them. The masks, in Betty's opinion, were now ready for sale.  

a. List and discuss the practices in the above scenario that can be considered unethical.

b. what could Clothing and Textiles and Betty have done differently to prevent these practices from occurring?

Answer 1

1. The clothing and textiles store acted unethically by raising the prices of raw materials needed to make the masks. This act can be termed as fleecing the customers in wake of an emergency that was of serious concern for everyone. Betty went a step ahead in unethical conduct when she produced the products I. Bulk without paying heed to the factors like appropriateness of the material, practicing hygiene while making the masks and sanitising them before selling, thus putting the safety of her customers in grave danger of catching the same virus which caused them to wear the mask.

2. Clothing and textiles should have refrained from making excessive profit ( around 250%) on raw material, as it would cost the patients more who are already reeling under severe economic hardship. Betty should have shown concern for the lives of the customers by being considerate and following basic hygiene and care to prevent the masks from becoming a source of infection for users.