It is sad that current events have lead to the existing market situation. However, that's what happens when events arise in which such runs on the market occur...people buy up all they can get, exceeding the capacity of the market to supply enough to maintain stock on the shelves.
When this happens, companies often change their policies in order to ride through the times. They do so for a reason: marketing, both current and future. Perception has a LOT to do with profits.
"Gougers" are a separate issue which many people also disagree with. Yes, I totally understand what "supply and demand" means in a free market enterprise. I don't care philosophically when supply and demand on the market causes prices to go up. It's an inconvenience, but them's the breaks.
True "gougers", in my opinion, are parasites. They act maliciously with the
existing supplies available to people. Intent is everything to me. Got a truck load of supplies sitting in your garage? Fine, sell it for whatever you can get for it. Buying up all the scarce supplies off the shelves just to turn around and sell it at a huge profit margin in times of crisis? Bugger off...you're deliberately removing supplies from the hands of people who otherwise want/need it in order to artificially keep the prices inflated and to monopolize the availability through you.
I don't care what the law says about gouging. Such laws are extremely vague and, in my opinion, are too all-inclusive. It's impossible to gage intent they way they are written...they typically rely solely on whether or not a person is selling/reselling above pre-crisis pricing, which is NOT necessarily gouging.
Understand that while I'm not going to agree with everybody who says "there is no gouging, it's the law of supply and demand", I'm also
NOT going to agree with everybody who says "he's taking advantage of the situation to gouge everybody on prices".
Both are extreme opposites of the spectrum on the subject, and the truth of any particular instance most often lies somewhere in between those extremes.
I've kind of drifted off-topic here, and I appologize. The subject has to do with Walmart's policy change, which they put out last January. The article linked in the OP had this to say from a Walmart representative:
Lundberg said, "We are trying to take care of as many customers as possible because supply is limited at this time." He said Walmart stores are monitoring supply issues daily and will address purchase limits once supply issues are resolved.
This is a corporate decision, made for some of the reasons I listed in my last posting. Let's leave it at that.
