Quote:
Originally Posted by Flamingo13
Trying to get through to the OP: price gouging is, for instance: tornado, whatever, NO power, no water, etc. and people trying to sell a simple bottle of water for $5 (or more). Inflation isn't price gouging.
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Sorry, but it is more nuanced than that. (Nobody raises water prices after a tornado, for one thing.)
Florida had laws enacted about "price gouging" after a hurricane. Otherwise gasoline went for a premium, etc. I understand the sentiment.
Inflation is a steady increase in prices because of various underlying cost factors.
Price "gouging" - definition 1 - relates to charging insanely high prices for goods and services that people cannot avoid for any reason. Go into an emergency room in a hospital without insurance, and there will be price gouging. You think you are dying and need immediate medical care, the insurance companies have negotiated lower costs for themselves and their policyholders, but at the same time the hospital inflates rates to cash customers. Why? You get right down to the "follow the money" and it has to do with frightening people into buying insurance and clipping those who don't, as well as the cost of insurance for the hospital itself to protect it from lawsuits.
When a hurricane occurs, there are usually DAYS of warning. Not minutes, not hours, but days and sometimes even weeks. I have seen,
firsthand, lines of idiots seeking free water after a hurricane because they didn't have the brainpower of a frog to anticipate in advance to even pick up a used bottle by the side of the road and clean it and fill it with water.
In a free market capitalist economy, pricing is set by the seller and if it works, the seller makes money. If it doesn't and the price is too high, they don't.
A nuance comes when there is limited supply and high demand. With a limited supply of gasoline, economics dictates one of three outcomes:
1. Rationing. Those of us who lived through 1973 or further back, WWII, know exactly how that works. It gets people by, but there is whinging and moaning.
2. Collapse of the market from not rationing and simply allowing the supply to all get sold. That is actually the scariest outcome, because those who are not first in line but have desperate need can suffer or even die. "Sorry, the ambulance can't come for you. No gas."
3.Price increases, often sudden and dramatic. That is what happened with eggs. Short supply, huge demand, the demand was curbed by price increases.
There are no other responses, and what Florida deemed as "gouging" was not in fact. It was a free market response. Those who had desperate need for gasoline, could get it. The limited supplies were stretched to last because of the high prices. However, it was politicly a disaster because of the whinging from the unprepared with a voter card.
True gouging is a dangerous dangerous game for stores to play. After the demise of Winn Dixie, I was a stalwart shopper at Publix for years (after first buying at less expensive markets to save money). I appreciated the employee-owned concept even though pricing was a little high. I have not been in a Publix in months.
Why the change? I caught Publix price gouging at the same time its customer service was worsening. As an example, I had a manufacturer coupon for a product. That manufacturer coupon stated a range of what it would pay for a BOGO (buy one, get one free). Publix had marked the price of that product at 150% of what the top limit was as a manufacturer suggested price. There is no way on earth the cost to Publix on that product had jumped to justify that price. It was not a one-off problem, but something I was noting elsewhere in pricing at the store.
For about $10, Publix lost me as a regular customer, where I used to spend a couple thousand a year. Multiply me by hundreds of other customers finding other places to buy and it becomes a problem for Publix.
The gouging there occurred because some bean counter thought that the customers were too loyal and too stupid to notice a price that was outrageous and provided easy profits. It has always had an upper class customer base who care more about customer service than prices, but then it has started failing there.
Price gouging is -definition 2- unjustified price increases when costs and conditions do not warrant those increases. Pumping up the price of eggs in a shortage is not gouging. Keeping those prices high after the shortage is gone and the wholesale price has dropped IS.
See the difference and nuances?
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with a combo it came close to the $20 range I was going to get two of those sandwiches and a combo I ended up saying no thanks and went to the popeyes a few doors down and got a couple of chicken sandwiches for half the price which are bigger and far superior.
