You know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
I know the value of freedom and I know the cost of tyranny.
They will watch for far advance signs of possible disasters and bring in more items well before they are needed. Then when they can sell $30,000 rather than $3,000 worth of vital commodity a day, not because they priced gougingly but because they had enough to sell at normal prices.
Hurricane Charley could have hit just about anywhere in Florida with about 24 hours notice. If every merchant in Florida were to decide to suddenly increase his stocks severalfold, I guarantee he will not be buying at wholesale prices, assuming the stocks were even available. He would eventually have to sell below cost and not sing all the way to the bank.
But suppose every merchant decides to plan farther ahead, to have a permanent stock big enough that he would not run out during a crises. That would mean that he would have huge year-round inventory costs. Storage space, land, buildings, taxes, interest on the debt etc. He has to pass that cost on to the consumer every day -- all for a disaster that may happen every thirty years.
Better to rely on free enterprise and bring in outside stocks using ad-hoc suppliers, or as you call them, "gougers". You pay a one time premium that costs less.
But the merchant should be free to do it any way he wants. If he thinks your way is best let him try -- it's a free country. Or should be.
That is the value of freedom. The cost of tyranny is everyone concerned being too intimidated by anti-gouging laws or by misguided "public opinion".
I would like to point out that it is a mighty fragile "freedom" that can be toppled by people who don't want to shop at a gouger anymore.
True freedom is more robust stuff. What it is not, is a mandate to behavior like a herd of cats.