Sandy Price Gouging Probed: $7 Loaf Of Bread, $10 Box Of Matches

NBC ^ | 11-6-2012 | AP

[blam]

More than 400 possible cases of price gouging of gasoline and other essentials, including a $10 box of matches and $7 loaf of bread, have been reported in New York before and after Sandy.

Reports are being investigated in New York City, the Hudson Valley and on Long Island by state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

[SJSAMPLE]

Exactly, “gouging” and “hoarding” aren’t even taught in economics classes.

[Boogieman]

“Reports are being investigated in New York City, the Hudson Valley and on Long Island by state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.”

What exactly is Eric Schneiderman investigating? Is free enterprise a prosecutable offense now?

[subterfuge]

Wow. An article about Sandy. Seems like it isn’t a big deal at all to the media. Just a few million people starving and freezing.

If obama can stop the rise of the oceans and heal the earth, why can’t he help the people he SAYS he cares about. Just wave your magic wand owebama. Why are you letting people starve and freeze? Playing some hoops instead mr. Preezy?

[khelus]

cc JediJones; SaraJohnson;count-your-change

But if a store owner can adjust the price, why not limit items ‘one to a customer’?

Thanks for your post. Unlike many, you obviously are not confusing normal commerce with a natural disaster.

Reading through the posts on threads re price gauging, you realize how shrewd Marx was in recommending free movement of capital divorced from ethics and patriotism.

Better written than I could:
One
Two
Thee

[MrB]

Yep, I may “need” two boxes of matches, and be willing to pay the $20, but if I don’t REALLY need a third box, I’ll spend the $10 on something else that I do.

However, if that box was only $2, I would probably go ahead and get a couple more just in case. Then the next guy would be willing to pay a lot more, but they’re all gone because I was willing to spend for the “just in case”.

[dfwgator]

If they sold them at a normal price, the purchaser would just turn around and sell it at the higher price....the invisible hand will not be denied.

[count-your-change]

In answer to the question:
“But if a store owner can adjust the price, why not limit items ‘one to a customer’?”

He might do that if he wanted the widest distribution of a product instead of the quickest return of his investment and profit.
But typically the merchant wants to sell out a stock at a profit and reinvest in more in a profitable cycle. He wants customers to return and even gain new ones.

The politician has a different motive. He represents a group of people and it's in his interests to serve their needs as widely and completely as possible.
He has no profit and loss statement to concern himself with but operating within the bounds of available resources.

He may indeed say one item to a person or such to make what will be seen as a “fair” allocation to those who can reelect him or otherwise support him in office.

Which one of us would want the police to only serve those neighborhoods that could pay enough to allow a “profit” on their service.

But a merchant can do that. He can ration by price if his supply is limited. So Kolbe beef is rationed by its $50-$100/lb. price to those able and willing to pay for it.

As is evident the politician and the merchant operate under different constraints and are guided by different motives.

[ansel12]

When there are only 3 boxes of matches left, and some guy is buying up every box in sight, he’ll stop doing so and let someone else who needs it worse when the price becomes high enough for him to say “I already have enough”. High prices in an emergency prevent hoarding and promote efficient distribution of needed resources.

Raising the price on 3 boxes of matches means absolutely nothing, just do what stores always do and limit the items per person.

Raising a price beyond the ability of the wealthy to purchase what they want of it, hardly makes it available to the regular people.

[DuncanWaring]

They’re not doing
 anything.”


I'd be inclined to give those guys a little bit of a break.

When I lived in an apartment, I didn't own a pump suitable for emptying a flooded basement.

Even if one of them did have a pump, where would they get the power to run it?

[blam]

If I found myself in that situation my first question would be:

1. How did I fail and let myself get in this situation?

2. Now, how will I survive and get out of this situation,

3. What will I do to prevent this ever happening again.

I'm just being a hard-assed...as I think I have planned for most any situation that can happen.

Because....It's Always Something. (IAS)

[blam]

Grid-Down Collapse: Hard Assets Soar In Value

[DuncanWaring]

Yeah, there is that whole issue of “living within storm-surge distance of the shoreline”.