Horse-squeeze. Stores should be able to charge whatever they want, whatever the market will allow. Government has no more business setting prices than it does setting wages.

Those small grocery stores exist in America, too. They’re in the higher density inner cities, and are frequently criticized for their high prices, poor selection of healthy foods, and poor quality fresh foods (to the extent they have them at all).

Fortunately, most people have access to larger stores with lower prices, greater selection, and convenient one-stop shopping. We even have destination shopping options, like factory outlet stores, which may be an hour’s drive from cities, but offer some serious bargains.

I’d like to see codified in law a description of what is by definition not price gouging, to stop the lawyers. Stores should be able to raise their prices of in-demand items by 100% or more without fear of being sued, and we’ll rely on competition to keep the higher prices just high enough to equalize demand. I propose the following standard for what is not gouging: for a 20 ounce bottle of soda, the ratio of the average price in the area’s stadiums and amusement parks to the average price in Wal-Marts and grocery stores. Because if a 500% margin for this item isn’t “gouging,” then it should be true for all products.

Heh, if gas was $50/gal there, you can guarentee every person in the southeast would be personally driving tanker truck to Georgia and selling it out of the trailer!

You’d think so, but I bet that won’t happen. Because Congress allows local and state environmental regulation to override federal regulation, the US gasoline market is extremely balkanized. When an area starts to run short of gas, it is often the case that gas in the surrounding areas cannot be shipped in because it doesn’t meet local regulations for gasoline. Pretty much the entirety of California uses special gas blends that prevent gas from outside the state from being sold there, and worse the various metro areas use different blends from each other. As you would expect, supply shocks are common in CA.

Another point, which I haven’t seen made much is that margin of profit per gallon of gas is not very high for these gas stations. Most gas stations rely on the convenience store to sell cigarettes, beer, snacks, drinks, magazines, etc. I imagine these gas stations are probably making less money a week when they run out of their 2 weekly shipments of gas in a matter of hours.

Sonny Perdue is an assclown.

But whatever it is, when someone starts “gouging,” all hell breaks loose. In fact, the ideasphere in this area is so distorted that it appears to make business sense NOT to raise prices too high, simply because it will tick off customers who don’t understand the issue. That may explain the experience you had in Atlanta where you were limited in how much you could fill up.

Having a pregnant daughter in Atlanta, I would go for “gouging” any time to make sure she has the fuel when she is going to need it! Of course, I’d go for it anyway.

Does anyone remember the phony gas shortgage we had here in Phoenix when the only pipeline providing the approved EPA blend shut down? “Gouging” would have ended the shortage in a flash. But instead, we had politicians vowing to do whatever was in their power to punish “gougers.”

http://dullgeek.blogspot.com/2008/09/gas-shortage.html
http://dullgeek.blogspot.com/2008/09/re-gas-shortage.html

One of my points: When there’s a shortage, price caps don’t allow for a smooth transition from high supply to shortage. You simply run out. People don’t get a chance to figure out how they’re going to work around the shortage. The supply just disappears one day. Whereas when the prices rise, people can stop other (less important) consumption in order to give themselves a little time to figure out how to conserve on the commodity that’s in short supply. Price increases allows people to link things that have relatively inelastic demand with something that has higher elastic demand. This gives people time to think and devise a plan.

What price caps do is create the illusion that there’s no supply disruption until supply runs out. And then (rather suddenly) the price jumps up from $4/gal to infinity. And everyone’s stuck trying to get a commodity that’s gone with very little time to figure out an alternative.