The widespread Coronavirus (COVID-19) health crisis has prompted an unsual issue for Dick’s Market in Dorr and local consumers.

Cortney Schuelke of Dorr posted on Facebook her displeasure with Dick’s selling unbranded toilet paper in packages of three for $5.69, and even questioning if the store was permitted by law to do so.

Steve Dutkiewicz, store owner and son of the more than 60-year-old grocery’s founders, Dick and Rusty Dutkiewicz, explained that too many customers had been expressing frustration with not being able to find bathroom tissue while shopping at the store.

“I explained that for weeks now Spartan Nash (product supplier for Dick’s) has not shipped us any TP. Looking to take care of my customers, I ordered restaurant supply TP which came bulk and not cheap. We bagged it in food grade bags and marked it up 25 percent (regarded as the customary price increase).

“They came in loose-bulk, not packaged. It would have been stupid to put them on the shelf without some sort of packaging. All stores package products, in Deli, Bakery, Meat, etc.”

The panic buying by too many customers during the crisis has caused shortages of some products, particularly toilet paper, soap and sanitizer.

But Schuelke contended, “Most of the problem isn’t with price gouging. it is also this is not sanitary and not legal to repackage and sell for profit when not intended for distribution. I did reach out to someone with a contact at Harding’s (in Wayland) and they stated that items must be individually packaged with their own barcode, and this in fact is not allowed. But I’m just a person without any legal knowledge just didn’t like that this was happening at a local business I support every week.”

Dutkiewicz said, “It (the restaurant toilet paper) wasn’t cheap, but my customers needed something.”

He said the cost to Dick’s was $4.23 per repackaged three-pack, and the 25 percent markup brought the price to $5.69.

There has been no firm indication yet as to whether or not the merchandising of the toilet paper is legal.