The hygiene industry has received a shot in the arm with the recent pandemic. With emptying retail shelves, small business is also coming to the aid with innovative sanitizing ideas.



Retail stores in Johannesburg, as in most urban centers in the world currently, have run out of wet wipes and hand-sanitizers – the widely-recommended weapons to keep the coronavirus at bay.



With the first confirmed case of Covid-19 in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province on March 5, the pandemic has brought the country to high alert and a state of national disaster proclaimed by President Cyril Ramaphosa merely two weeks later, with 116 confirmed cases and counting (at the time of going to press).



Where there was plenty before news of the outbreak, exasperated customers are seeing ‘Out Of Stock or ‘Sold Out’’ signs in bold red letters on hand-sanitizer shelves at retail outlets and pharmacies. There is a long waiting list at dispensaries such as Clicks in Johannesburg.



At a store at The Marc, a fairly new retail mall in Sandton, Africa’s richest square mile, the manager echoes the sentiments of his counterparts in other malls in the area: “Three weeks ago, we were fully stocked, now, we are out of stock. This happened the week of the first coronavirus report in KwaZulu-Natal, when we had foreign nationals who bought hand-sanitizers more than the [locals] because of the [five-star] hotels in the area.”



About 21kms from Sandton in Roodepoort, another city in Johannesburg, Khensani Moleko, a 27-year-old account manager in the advertising industry, says she mall-hopped a whole weekend in search of hand-sanitizers.



“We went to multiple shops in the Roodepoort area and found nothing. However, we had sanitizers before the outbreak so we still have some left but it’s running out. I’ll be looking online,” says Moleko.



This is what consumers like Mufhenyi Mashamba, a Johannesburg-based interior designer, are doing too.



“On the websites, all sanitizers were out of stock, and they are usually priced between R20 and R30. When I checked the next day, people were auctioning hand-sanitizers [at ridiculous prices]. So now, I’m sitting here with no wipes and no sanitizers. I’m relying on personal hygiene and making sure I’m aware of my surroundings and that people have their hygiene in check,” says Mashaba.&nbsp;



This is also an opportunity for private business and small entrepreneurs such as Ludwick Marishane, founder of Headbody Industries and inventor of DryBath Gel, an innovative gel that can be used as a water-less body wash.



“We are making an antiseptic version of the product and the idea is to provide it to businesses because facilities are no longer safe. We have also been approached by a few retailers interested in listing our product.”



The gel is currently sold online, and should find its way on to retail shelves by June next year, says Marishane.



He is not the only entrepreneur making money off the hygiene industry.



Whitey Chemicals, founded by Joanna Stewart in Johannesburg, is a chemical cleaning service and supplier. The company started with cleaning petrol stations; one of their products is used to remove oil from concrete and restore it to its original form. The company also supplies disinfectants and cleaning solutions for schools, businesses and homes. “When I started the business two months ago, we fully got into hand-sanitizers because of the increase in the chaos going on in the country. Sanitizers are in high demand and business has picked up rapidly, it’s the main focus currently,” says Stewart, who has been in the pharmaceutical industry for the last 15 years. She has a full-time staff of six but has had to employ another 15 as freelancers to keep up with the demand.



With emptying retail shelves, small business is coming to the rescue, whilst also cashing in on the timely opportunity.

Sanitizer 520

Hands-On Approach: Small Business Is Coming To The Aid With Innovative Sanitizing Solutions

In the two days since he advertised&nbsp; “unprocessed toilet paper” for sale on Facebook Marketplace next to a photo of logs, David Traichel says the response has been better than expected. No actual buyers, just hundreds of views, laughs, and “you made my day” from other users browsing through the online classifieds.



“So many people are so freaked out about the idea of not having toilet paper,” says Traichel, 39. The aerospace technician and welder from Northford, Connecticut generally uses Facebook Marketplace to sell vintage car and bicycle parts. He decided to offer his oak and cedar woodpile (price, $1) to jog users out of their shopping panic. “Maybe those people would see the ad and think, ‘OK, maybe I’m overreacting.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



Homebound Americans have turned to scavenging on ecommerce sites like Amazon, eBay and Facebook Marketplace for the boring household goods that have become hot items during the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/coronavirus/#18de6a4120dd">coronavirus pandemic</a>. The shortages have inspired some mercenary sellers to excessive pricing (say, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/2020/03/04/149-for-purell-the-coronavirus-sparked-wild-price-hikes-and-amazon-and-others-are-cracking-down/">hand sanitizer for $149</a>) and prompted the tech companies to crack down on price gougers. The hoarding frenzy has also been catnip for armchair humorists, who have found an unlikely platform to yuk it up in the free classifieds of Facebook Marketplace. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="960" height="679" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/960x0.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-43777" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/960x0.jpg 960w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/960x0-300x212.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/960x0-600x424.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/960x0-768x543.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px" /><figcaption> You snooze, you lose. KIM MARIE/FACEBOOK </figcaption></figure>



 On the social network’s 800 million-user shopping site, one Internet standup is offering “toilet paper, extra long roll” for $69,4202—it’s a CVS receipt wound around the toilet paper dispenser. Another wants to sell you the “last roll of toilet paper in the world,” marked at $10,000. As a last resort, yet another smart aleck is advertising $90 toilet paper alongside a photo of sandpaper. “Don’t go without during this crisis,” it reads. 



In reality, there’s no toilet paper crisis. Unlike imports such as iPhones and flat-screen TVs, most U.S. toilet paper comes from domestic factories, buffering supplies from a drop in production in China, where the viral outbreak started. Georgia-Pacific, maker of AngelSoft and Quilted Northern, is boosting its U.S. production. Proctor &amp; Gamble, which makes Charmin brand toilet paper, Bounty paper towels and Puffs facial tissue, says production at its U.S. plants is at record highs. “Demand continues to outpace supply, but we are working diligently to get product to our retailers as fast as humanly possible,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2020/03/16/the-national-toilet-paper-scare-why-our-supplies-are-safe/#7309524869a4">says P&amp;G spokeswoman Loren Fanroy</a>.&nbsp;



Which makes it all the more absurd that <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2020/03/05/the-economics-of-panic-buying/">anxious shoppers stripped supermarket shelves</a> of every last double-ply roll. Relishing the irony, Kim Marie, a 42-year-old naturopathic practitioner from Manorville, New York, decided this week to flog “vintage toilet paper” on Facebook Marketplace. For just $55,990, she’s showcasing a water-damaged and rotting roll mounted on a rustic wall, closing with the Craigslist battlecry of overpriced junker listings, “no low ballers, I know what I got.” Marie, who regularly sells vintage housewares on the site,  says she has received no serious inquiries. Just as well, since the item listed isn’t actually in Marie’s possession— it was a funny photo texted to her by her husband. She threw it up on Marketplace “to lighten the mood.”



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="960" height="909" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/960x0-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-43778" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/960x0-1.jpg 960w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/960x0-1-300x284.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/960x0-1-600x568.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/960x0-1-768x727.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px" /><figcaption> See more of Liz Stoppiello&#8217;s work on her Facbook page, @Stitchizbyliz.   LIZ STOPPIELLO/@STITCHIZBYLIZ </figcaption></figure>



It was the “organic toilet paper,” a $10 baggie of leaves listed on Facebook Marketplace by her brother’s girlfriend, that inspired&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/lizzie80892/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Liz Stoppiello</a>, 27. The stay-at-home mom usually sells items like car seats and books on Facebook Marketplace. This week she’s offering “washable crochet toilet paper! Been used only a cpl times”&nbsp; for a cool $100. The advertised off-white crochet squares, wrapped around a cardboard tube, look worthy of an Etsy storefront. It took about 30 minutes to make. She just wanted to “get a good laugh” from people and to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/lizzie80892/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">promote her crochet-oriented Facebook page</a>. “You never know if anyone will start to desperately need handmade items in the near future lol,” she said via email.&nbsp;



Her fellow Marketplace posters might be in on the joke, but Facebook’s bots are not. The social network, which uses artificial intelligence to help monitor content and warned Monday that its systems may have removed some<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/03/17/facebook-deleting-coronavirus-posts-leading-to-charges-of-censorship/#77ec53e05962">&nbsp;COVID-19-related posts in error</a>, had flagged&nbsp;Traichel’s toilet paper ad for unprocessed wood as “under review.”



Facebook “must be so flooded they don’t know what to do,” Traichel emailed, adding an “lol.” He isn’t interested in making a profit, at least not on his firewood. “If people really need toilet paper, I’ll give ‘em a roll.”



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/helenpopkin/">Helen A. S. Popkin</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/innovation">Innovation</a>

Tag: Hand Sanitizer

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