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Price gouging?
vanity ^ | 4/2/20 | trot

Posted on 04/02/2020 1:29:28 PM PDT by Trot

Newsom was right to balk at hand sanitizer for $400. Are other vendors hiking prices on other things?


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KEYWORDS: anotherdamnedvanity; coronavanity; gouging; prices
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Please excuse the vanity, but it may save you some money.

Just this morning I was looking for some camera add-ons on one of the online giants. I found what I wanted, and to make sure I was ordering exactly what I needed, I contacted the seller.

After confirming the info I asked about, I put the two items in my cart. They were fairly low cost, so you an imagine my surprise when both increased from online ad price to cart price by about 50%.

One went from about $8 to $12; the other from $9 to $13.

A browser add-on, PriceBlink, found both for the originally advertised price at a another giant marketplace, and I saved about $9. Not a lot, but $9 is $9. And I get to keep it.

Was the online vendor trying to get more money? or was this just a quirk? I wouldn't blame him for the former; but a jump of 50% from one minute to the next is not good business for me.

1 posted on 04/02/2020 1:29:28 PM PDT by Trot
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To: Trot

I have had that happen on Amazon a couple of times and did what you did, went to another site,


2 posted on 04/02/2020 1:33:02 PM PDT by arthurus (covfefe fo)
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To: Trot

Where are the Charmin gougers?


3 posted on 04/02/2020 1:41:19 PM PDT by aynrandfreak (Being a Democrat means never having to say you're sorry)
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To: Trot

Seems like the price of everything but gas is all jacked up. Of course gas demand is way down, nowhere to go!


4 posted on 04/02/2020 1:52:34 PM PDT by granite (The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left.Ecclesiastes 10:2)
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To: Trot

And Only Govt is NOT Prosecuted for never letting a Crisis go to waste.


5 posted on 04/02/2020 2:17:04 PM PDT by TexasTransplant (Damn the Torpedoes! Full Speed Ahead!)
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To: Trot

Warehouses are shutting down. I went to Kroger to get cheap avocados and asparagus and they only had the avocados.

Note: If you are sheltering at home, avocados are a God-send.


6 posted on 04/02/2020 2:22:12 PM PDT by AppyPappy (How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?)
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To: Trot
Please excuse the vanity, but it may save you some money.

I'll save you even more money. Common bar soap and hot water will clean your hands just as efficiently......

Hand sanitizers used at home along with bottled water that is just as clean as tap water are the two biggest scams ever sold to the general public...........

Go ahead, buy them if you wish...........LOL!

7 posted on 04/02/2020 2:23:06 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco (How did I survive the Swine flu and the killer flu of 2017-18 without govt. help?)
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To: Trot

If people were allowed to price gouge, it would solve the supply issue. When price gouging in prohibited, people buy more than they need, and you have shortage of supply. People wouln’t hoard toilet paper as much if the price was allowed to ride with demand, and that price rise would be incentive for enterprising people to get products to where there was the greatest need.

I would rather pay $10 for a roll of toilet paper, than have no toilet paper.

how much of the in demand items are going to waste sitting in couponer’s stock rooms because they could buy them so cheap?


8 posted on 04/02/2020 2:24:24 PM PDT by OHelix
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To: Trot

Had a coworker of mine try to tell me how price gauging was the best example of free market capitalism. Also, how it was morally better as well.
I was simply floored. He spent the next 2 hours trying to convince me of these points.
I finally got fed up and told him there was no way to convince me. It is immoral, corrupt, evil, and the worst of humanity, by trying to profit from people’s misery.


9 posted on 04/02/2020 2:29:00 PM PDT by vpintheak (Live free, or die!)
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To: vpintheak

I have a “simple trick” to avoid being price gouged.


10 posted on 04/02/2020 2:38:39 PM PDT by fhayek
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To: Hot Tabasco

Bottled water is considered food and is regulated by the FDA.
Tap water is regulated by the higher standards set by the EPA.
Most bottled water is no more than regular tap water that has been run through an reverse osmosis.


11 posted on 04/02/2020 2:41:52 PM PDT by Keyhopper (Indians had bad immigration laws)
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To: Trot

There is no such thing as price gouging.
There is only economic retardation.


12 posted on 04/02/2020 2:48:31 PM PDT by Crazieman (Civil war is near certain now.)
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To: vpintheak

Profiting from someone’s misery is one way to look at it... the other way to look at it is incentivizing someone to put forth the effort and capital (and maybe personal) risk to provide a desperately needed product when they otherwise would not be inclined to do so.

If someone knows they have a box of masks in the back of a warehouse somewhere, and they are not allowed to raise the price, they might not go to the trouble and/or expense to retrieve them and transport them to where they are most needed... Fewer people have masks... More people die.

If they are allowed to gouge, they have incentive to go to the trouble of retrieving those masks and spend the money and risk their own safety to get those masks to where people most desperately need them. More people have masks... Fewer people die.

If you have 1000 face masks that normally sell for 50 cents a piece, and don’t raise the price, the first few people buy more than they need. Fewer people have masks... More people die.

You raise the price, people aren’t as likley to take more than they need. More people have masks... Fewer people die.

Did your friend explain it like that?


13 posted on 04/02/2020 2:48:59 PM PDT by OHelix
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To: vpintheak

Your coworker is smarter than you are.
Economics don’t care about your feelings.


14 posted on 04/02/2020 2:49:39 PM PDT by Crazieman (Civil war is near certain now.)
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To: vpintheak

Got a lot done at work today, huh? Lol.


15 posted on 04/02/2020 2:53:16 PM PDT by Vermont Lt
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To: vpintheak

You have 2 hours at work to listen to a co-worker talk about price gauging? (Just curious)


16 posted on 04/02/2020 2:55:31 PM PDT by goodnesswins (Trump is as good a dictator as he is a racist.....)
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To: arthurus

Other than long wait on booty wipes, no issue. Walmart cancels orders a lot.

What I’m seeing is nothing to do with cleaning is on SALE full price which eats into SS income big time. I spend $100 on Nexium OTC a month, Military pulled it from the formulary. 80-100 mg a day is EXPENSIVE. I have BARRETT’S ESOPHAGUS A PRECANCEROUS condition. They put upper Endoscope off to 3 yrs from 2. OTC NAME BRAND IS NOT AS STRONG AS PRESCRIPTION. Had 2nd spot this Endoscope.

Hubby served 20 yrs Navy, retired SCPO.


17 posted on 04/02/2020 3:08:01 PM PDT by GailA (I'm a Trump Girl)
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To: Hot Tabasco

DIAL GOLD BAR SOAP.


18 posted on 04/02/2020 3:09:08 PM PDT by GailA (I'm a Trump Girl)
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To: Trot

Everclear 190 proof ftw.


19 posted on 04/02/2020 3:12:51 PM PDT by cranked
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To: Trot
Was at a local grocery store his morning the only eggs on sale were some organic free range selling at $6.95 dozen.

no thanks

20 posted on 04/02/2020 3:13:54 PM PDT by steveo
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