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They should be charging increased prices. They should have charged increased prices the moment demand went up (like Uber surge pricing). That would have snuffe

They should be charging increased prices. They should have charged increased prices the moment demand went up (like Uber surge pricing). That would have snuffed out the speculators right quick. One reason they don't do this is because of the attitudes illustrated in the comments here. People irrationally believe that surge pricing in this case is wrong and the negative response by their customers outweighs the benefits of surge pricing. I believe that attitude about surge pricing is wrong and it is one reason why we end up with shortages. It is a terribly self-defeating attitude that exacerbates the situation.

salawat 7y ago
They should absolutely not have raised prices. The issue isn't manufacturers, and only retailers in that they failed to implement a purchase limit per customer given news of a pandemic. You want the maximum number of people with enough supply to get by. Not to have large swathes of the population to go without because someone decided to usurp the logistics network in search of price gouging opportunities.
- gwright 7y ago
  Purchase limit per customer? So a single person and a family of four and a family of six are subject to the same limit? Much easier to raise the price then ask people to prove their need for a product. And how are you going to prevent people from just having mom, dad, and each child purchase the items separately?
  - salawat 7y ago
    Good! In order to do that, people will have to get cash. Cash has a far more tangible effect in terms of inspiring frugal spending, and it may not be a bad idea to get cash out of "the system" anyway. If not, simply vet the card making the purchase. This isn't novel or groundbreaking. Way back when, you'd have a Government issued ration card I believe. Though I'd think a voluntary program implemented by The practice of private ledger keeping, while out of vogue, is still quite practicable. All you have to do is talk to people. Of course, if you went balls to the wall laying off cashier's, you may be in for a bit of a bad time, but hey, shareholder haircuts happen. Price of doing business. This is not even the slightest bit untread territory.

salawat 7y ago

They should absolutely not have raised prices. The issue isn't manufacturers, and only retailers in that they failed to implement a purchase limit per customer given news of a pandemic. You want the maximum number of people with enough supply to get by. Not to have large swathes of the population to go without because someone decided to usurp the logistics network in search of price gouging opportunities.

gwright 7y ago
Purchase limit per customer? So a single person and a family of four and a family of six are subject to the same limit? Much easier to raise the price then ask people to prove their need for a product. And how are you going to prevent people from just having mom, dad, and each child purchase the items separately?
- salawat 7y ago
  Good! In order to do that, people will have to get cash. Cash has a far more tangible effect in terms of inspiring frugal spending, and it may not be a bad idea to get cash out of "the system" anyway. If not, simply vet the card making the purchase. This isn't novel or groundbreaking. Way back when, you'd have a Government issued ration card I believe. Though I'd think a voluntary program implemented by The practice of private ledger keeping, while out of vogue, is still quite practicable. All you have to do is talk to people. Of course, if you went balls to the wall laying off cashier's, you may be in for a bit of a bad time, but hey, shareholder haircuts happen. Price of doing business. This is not even the slightest bit untread territory.