Posted on 08/30/2017 11:22:12 AM PDT by Snickering Hound
Good economic sense for the guys who are probably going to get fired by management?
24 package of 20 oz. bottles sold and shipped from Walmart $34.20
So when you’re in a disaster, you’ve lost it all and are in need life saving medication, you won’t mind paying triple or more, right?
Nothing like a natural disaster to bring out everyone's inner communist.
Plus Texas charges a big fine for the “crime” of price gouging .
Many on FR would approve.
I don’t.
Well, Staples sells candy bars and water along with the envelopes and office furniture. Maybe they actually do sell water.
I can’t believe this is even a story. The employee doesn’t need fired because he or she did nothing wrong. They told the POS system to print a label and that is what it printed. No one made this price up, it was just meant to be sold as onesies. It my have even been a private stock for vending machines that they decided to share. Get over it.
Does compassion ever enter into capitalism? The optics of this during the storm isn’t going to be good for Best Buy.
So what if someone buys it all out? That’s capitalism too.
I'd be thankful if it was available at all.
I’m not talking about one business or a few individuals. I’m talking about the distribution of scarce resources for the entire population.
> There is no such thing as “price gouging”. It is an invention of the left. There is only supply and demand. <
Ah, yes. But here’s a hypothetical for you. Mr. Smith’s child climbs a tree, and falls, breaking his arm. The child is in great pain. Mr. Smith rushes his child to the nearest hospital.
“Well”, sez the doctor on duty. “We are the only hospital around. The next one is three hours away. And it might be closed. I can give your child something for his pain, and set his arm. But it will cost you $100,000.”
Supply and demand.
Or should regulations be in place to prevent this?
As an aside: Both the water story and my hypothetical are emergency situations. Not immediate life-and-death, but emergency situations. We are not talking a run on I-phones, or anything like that.
If they sell those bottles at the checkout line for $1.79 each, I don't see how they're price gouging (a made-up "crime" in the first place).
That would hardly ever happen because insurance would cover it.
In a free market insurance would be cheap and everyone who wanted it would have it.
Yes, you are speaking theoretically. I’m sure theoretically you are right. But when it gets down to face to face interactions of people selling needed products to desperate people, it gets a little sticky, doesn’t it? Can’t we all agree on that?
I’m sure they DO sell water. I’m also sure that they don’t go out of their way to keep it in stock and compete heavily in the bottled water business anyway.
Price gouging is one thing, but many in Houston, who have lost their cars, are now afraid that if they cannot come to work, they will lose their jobs and be unemployed for a long time to come.
What would Mr. Smith do if there was no hospital there?
If drinking water is in low supply, the BEST way to increase the supply is to let market forces take over.
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