Good question, I can’t understand that either. I live outside of a small town near Sumter, SC. I was watching the local WIS-TV news and they had video footage of a gas station in Sumter that had already raised it’s price to $5.30 a gallon, up almost $2. I hope that person is arrested and charged with price gauging, but I doubt it. My husband just took my car into town to get gas (I was going to get it tomorrow because it needs it but he was kind enough not to want me to wait). It’ll be interesting to see how this pans out.
3.54 in Kempner Texas. Same as yesterday. No lines.
Where do you think the fuel from you car is refined? Between offshore platforms in the gulf shut down and the refineries in Texas shut down, there's a shortage all over the whole southeast.
Your statement would lead to misguided policy. Criminalizing markets would inhibit market functioning. The price is rising because there is a severe shortage. Panick buying will accerbate the problem. The price increase is a signal to stop hording gasoline.
The only alternative to price increases when there is a shortage is rationing and price controls. Rationing has many drawbacks as black markets typically develop to allocate resources that are not efficiently allocated by rationing.