Your case is slightly different. It's quite easy to explain to reasonable customers the difficulties you face supply, resupply, labor, transportation, permits, etc.
I was a residential remodeller during HUGO when I lived in Northern VA. I rented a Ryder, filled it full of framing lumber and plywood, loaded my crew, and headed to N.C. While I got a premium for what we did, we didn't gouge and got very, very few complaints from homeowners.
It's different when you're sitting on ten cases of water at $1.09 a gallon Monday and the same ten cases are worth $10.09 a gallon on Tuesday and you did nothing, or paid nothing, extra to obtain it.
It's different when you're sitting on ten cases of water at $1.09 a gallon Monday and the same ten cases are worth $10.09 a gallon on Tuesday and you did nothing, or paid nothing, extra to obtain it.
But if you had sold the water at an inflated price you would have the money to replenish your stocks by paying the premium to the guy in the pickup truck who hauled a load of water one hundred miles.
If you want to do the best you can to serve the public then the logical thing to do is to raise prices.
I once bought a few (VERY few, sadly) gold coins, when the price was about $275 an ounce.
A little later, the same coins were worth about $400 each, "and I did nothing, or paid nothing, extra to obtain it."
Question for the moralists: should I have sold them for what I paid? Or for what I paid, "plus a few bucks, a 'fair price'"?
Or should I have sold them for the market price, even though it was "unfairly higher than what I'd paid for them"?
Here's another question.
You tell me a funny story, it makes me laugh, and I say, "Thanks, that was great, I really enjoyed laughing", and I hand you an ounce of gold.
The gold cost you nothing.
Later on, you decide to sell it.
Do you give it away for free (what it cost you)?
Do you sell it for ten bucks? (You're making an infinite profit!)
Do you (*gasp*) sell it for a hundred dollars?
That would be a HUNDRED times more than you'd paid for it, IF you'd bought it for a dollar! But, you got it for FREE, so you're an even worse "profiteer".
Or, do you sell it at the "market price" of about $400?
Next question:
You're selling it to ME!
First words out of my mouth, right after you ask if I want to buy an ounce gold coin from you are, "How much did you pay for it?"
Do you tell me "I got it for free"?
Do you make up some price, and lie to me?
Or, do you tell me it's none of my f'n business what YOU paid for YOUR coin, the only queston is to I want to buy it at the price YOU are asking for it?
Sometimes simple thinks seem complex, and sometimes things that seem complex are simple.
And if that's not bad enough, both of those conditions are the same!
In a free country, what you PAID for your property has no bearing on what you SELL it for.
Sure, sure, if you consistently sell things for less than you paid, you will quickly be out of business -- but, just as you cannot compel people to pay more than they are willing to pay "because I NEED to make this much money so I can pay MY bills!", you should likewise NOT be compelled to sell for LESS than the market is willing to pay, simply because some nosey marxist determined that your "cost" is too low to "justify" the market price.
It is very easy to slip into socialism, and nearly impossible to slip out of it. So if there's any lesson at all in all this insanity, it's to watch our steps, and do whatever we can to avoid slipping into marxism.
For me, that would mean that if I'm told I cannot charge what the market will bear, I will simply refuse to sell, period. Or, I will hire an auctioneer, and let him determine the market value.