“Price gouging”, otherwise known as free market.
If you aren’t rewarded for keeping a larger inventory, then you won’t keep a larger inventory, and no one will have the supplies they need when they really need them.
Stupid commies!
One aspect that is ignored in these stories is the REPLACEMENT COST for the merchant selling the goods. Even if he paid $1 for bottles of cleanser, if he’ll have to pay $4 each to replace them, why not let him charge that?
That is the logic used with gas prices; the price paid for the fuel stored in the tanks (and being sold) is not the only consideration of the owner - he has to anticipate how much it will cost to refill those tanks.
And you have absolutely no idea how retail actually works