What's a business owner to do? Order replacements at higher price and be sued for selling at a higher price, or sell at a loss and go into the red? Actually they choose a third option which is to simply put up the "no gas" sign. Much safer way to operate.
For those who expect businesses to act charitably in the time of crisis, especially those hourly and salaried types, I ask you - will you be working at a discount?
Is gas at the pump up $0.50 a gallon where you are?
It still is in Houston even with the storm (Harvey) gone and production still exceeding consumption.
Maybe fifty years ago...the distribution system could have handled this type of chaos. Today? No. There’s a schedule and a rate of manufacture/delivery. I don’t think any politician or journalists ever sits down and asks the business guy running a gas station how the system works. You can draw a circle of five miles and talk to ten different gas station owners....they all are in the same boat and face the same consequences because of the system that has developed in recent decades.
Less than a month ago I got gas at a Walmart for $1.99/gallon. Now the same place had it for $2.69 during this mad rush. There’s no gasoline anywhere in town and the ones that did have a little was the Premium gas, care to guess that price $.
Snowbird Broward county buddy evacuating north with pickup loaded with rescued house valuables reports traffic slowed to crawl on all roads headed north. No gas at stations. Wanted to make two trips saving household items better be satisfied with one trip before Irma hits.
Well, lots of articles about the shortages should help the situation.
This is one reason why “evacuation” sounds better that it works in the real world.
In the real world you have to get out before you are sure of the danger—if you wait for everyone else to figure it out it is too late—unless you like huddling in shelters for days at a time.
If they jacked up the price to $8 a gallon, people would buy just enough to get out and there would be no shortages.
Some Freeper called me a communist for suggesting this last week.
He never responded when I called him out
Nail, meet hammer. Indeed, when will people learn. Millions live in a hurricane zone, yet few see a need to stock up on bottled water in April or May, when no storm is threatening and prices are at normal levels (and some stores may actually have it on sale). Ditto for supplies of non-perishable food, flashlights, batteries, first aid kits, fuel containers and everything else on your preparation checklist. Too busy watching Netflix to spend a Saturday morning re-filling or creating a survival kit.
Now, with a Cat 5 bearing down, they’re stunned to discover a two-hour wait for gas (at the few stations that still have it); store shelves picked clean of bottled water and other essentials, and evacuation routes packed with far more vehicles—and people—than they were designed to handle.
The parable of the ant and the grasshopper still holds.