It’s not just the airlines whose CEOs and CFOs are having orgasms all over their bottom lines.
A store in Houston was caught charging $42 for a case of bottled water. They only came off of it after pictures went viral on social media. Just think about how many got away with it and are getting away with it.
Not excusing it, but that store selling water for $42 wasn’t price gouging. They usually sell water for $1.75 a bottle in the store so an employee just did the math and put a sign up for the cost to purchase 24 bottles in a case.
Starting with the airlines what you tow do not take into account is that there won’t be any return flights to Florida once those aircraft leave. The prices of the airfares have to cover the airlines’ cost of operations when they have to pay to park these aircraft somewhere instead of operating them.
As to the $42 case of water the higher price includes the vendors higher costs to get more water delivered into a flood zone.
Do you two really expect that every private business can afford to absorb all of the costs of a disaster without passing some of it on to their customers?
If you two think everyone should have free water in a disaster then donate to a charity like Samaritan’s Purse:
https://www.samaritanspurse.org/
But if you expect that private businesses are supposed to morph into social welfare agencies when it suits you then you might be on the wrong forum.
Before you jump to any conclusions about me let me tell you that we run bison on our ranch and every now and then that means we get stuck in the middle of heavy snows needing to buy alfafa.
Normally alfafa runs like $9 to $10 per bale. But during heavy snows...when we need it most...the cost can rise to as much as $50 and even $60 per bale.
That’s because we’re paying for the delivery and we’re paying for the delivery truck and driver to take the risk of wrecking in the snow and maybe even getting killed trying to get alfafa to us. So we pay what we have to pay.
If you’re in the midst of a devastated part of Houston then you’re fortunate to even have access to an open store. But you have to acknowledge that the cost of resupplying that store has to come from somewhere and that’s the consumer.
Retail price controls don’t have any effect on wholesale delivery costs so what these price controls end up doing is closing stores in the areas that need them the most.
Look at Venezuela which is in the midst of a disaster every bit as bad as a hurricane and their retail price controls have put entire industries out of business and now people are starving.
Is that what you want? Of course not.
Then leave the retailers in Texas alone and don’t support this stupid price control laws.
- Megan
A store in Houston was caught charging $42 for a case of bottled water.
And, they were correct. It was not a 24 pack case, but 30 pack case, and for liter bottles. Maybe you didn’t know that, but that’s actually a little cheap. 30 liters of water for $42 bucks, less than $1.50 a bottle. Go to 7/11, Valero, Kum N Go, and price a liter bottle of water.
My nephew lives in Tallahassee. He said he couldn’t stock up on bottled water yesterday. The store was sold out already.