Price Gouging
These people are, in many ways, worse than looters, the business that jack up prices to an absurd level when their communities are under stress.
The ABC reports on the situation in Flood victims charged $10 for bread, and include one official’s solution:
Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale says the city will remember businesses that try to take advantage of the disaster.
“I know I’m not supposed to say [this] – but the health inspectors are on their way and the building inspectors are on their way after we finish this to see if we can help those businesses – [but] like hell,” he said.
I can see that the mayor intends to be “very helpful” to the gougers.
5 comments
I know after an temblor here, gas really shoots up in price. They say they aren’t gauging…and there are laws on the books against them doing so…but they still do anyway.
I have been “training” folks new to CA to have minimum 1/2 tank of gas in the car (and cold hard cash on hand) at all times (in case of quakes and other emergencies)…they all laugh and shake their heads and assume that gas stations will be open with the ability to run credit cards.
People who pull this kind of c**p really should lose their business license.
Jill, local government “inspectors” is a bigger threat than the loss of the business license.
We run into the same thing after hurricanes, and it is definitely short lived, because the Florida law is both enforced and nasty if someone complains.
You are right on the gas and cash. When there is a hurricane looming I always get cash, because plastic is worthless without power or the communications lines. You go back to a cash/barter economy until power is restored.
I remember after one of a good sized jolt we had here years ago, a couple gas stations were selling gas for $8-$10/gallon. Bottled water…about the same.
Yet right-wingers actually support this kind of price gouging, because it “allocates scarce resources”. Yet another way in which wingers fail the basic humanity test…
– Badtux the Head-shakin’ Penguin
You write down their names and never buy anything from them again. The process is called capitalism and it works from both sides. Cash is a damn scarce resource after a disaster, so that doesn’t really hold up to examination.