Idaho biz Melaleuca says it is an essential service, will stay open through lockdown
Melaleuca has sold more hand sanitizer in the last 30 days as it usually does in a year.
That product is one of the reasons the Idaho Falls-based company decided it is an “essential service” and will stay open through the COVID-19 public health emergency, according to Aaron Eddington, general counsel for Melaleuca.
Idaho Gov. Brad Little on Wednesday announced an extreme emergency and issued an order that requires the public to stay home from work and recreation, to cease gatherings and set other new limits. It exempted some employers that provide “essential services,” such as grocery stores and health care.
Eddington told the Statesman that Melaleuca based its decision to stay open on the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency list of “essential to continued critical infrastructure viability” during the COVID-19 emergency. Melaleuca falls under the “food and agriculture” and “chemical” categories, he said.
On that list: “Workers supporting the chemical and industrial gas supply chains, including workers at chemical manufacturing plants, workers in laboratories, workers at distribution facilities, workers who transport basic raw chemical materials to the producers of industrial and consumer goods, including hand sanitizers, food and food additives, pharmaceuticals, textiles, and paper products.”
Melaleuca is an online shopping club that sells products such as vitamins and supplements, household cleaners, cosmetics, bath and body products and essential oils.
Its website as of March 26 listed a 16-ounce bottle of hand sanitizer as available for purchase. Travel-sized hand sanitizers and wipes were listed as temporarily unavailable.
“Melaleuca sales are going crazy!” Melaleuca CEO Frank VanderSloot wrote on Twitter, several hours before Gov. Little issued the order. “We have enough raw ingredients, but pumps, sprayers, and fliptop caps are in short supply all over the world. Please don’t throw them away! Please be considerate and don’t order more than you need. Your new customers and others will need them!”
The U.S. retail market faced a shortage of hand sanitizer this month, due to a run on the product by people hoping to protect themselves from the novel coronavirus.
Koenig Distillery in Caldwell has partnered with St. Luke’s Health System to start producing hand sanitizer for its hospitals and clinics. It uses vodka spirits for the alcohol component of a recipe that has been approved by federal and world health authorities.
VanderSloot said on Twitter earlier this month that Melaleuca had ordered “several yrs. supply” of alcohol in January to use in its alcohol-based sanitizer. “The world shortage we anticipated happened weeks later,” he wrote. “A bottle shortage still created a 3 day stock out. We R back on sale & now have millions of pounds of thyme oil and alcohol!”
Eddington says the company has “been putting measures in place regarding social distancing ... as well as a work-from-home policy from the outset” of the coronavirus crisis. Melaleuca employees have their temperature taken on the way into the building. Anyone who doesn’t meet wellness criteria has been turned away, he said.
Although Melaleuca will stay in operation, employees who don’t need to be in the office will be working from home, Eddington said.
This story was originally published March 26, 2020 at 11:14 AM.
