From the video page (youtube.com) :
" 'They’re rationing tomatoes in the supermarkets.
We’re told it’s about supply chains, bad weather and the price of heating,
but right now, in terms of the messaging, I suspect it’s more about pushing the word – rationing.' "
Things look like they could get really "good".
I had volunteer tomatoes last fall from damaged ones I threw into the compost pile. Some seeds sprouted and I planted them to see how they would do in central Florida over the winter. I have so many tomatoes. I picked 11 just this morning.
Calling things what they are not is part of what gets us into trouble.
The stores (holy private businesses) are looking at the limited amount of goods they have in certain categories and asking themselves, how can we distribute these in a way that will lose us the least number of customers.
They could hike the prices but that would bring the government down on them. And it would tick off customers.
Selling them at the normal price would keep the government off their backs but some people would buy out all their produce and re-sell it someplace else at a profit. That would mean they would have nothing to sell most people. And that would tick off customers.
By keeping the price normal but restricting the number of units people may buy they are keeping the maximum number of customers at "mildly annoyed but not enough to change their shopping habits". And as a bonus you do not have the government on your back.