And then there is this guy...WTF?
March 15th, 2020 at 12:12 PM ^
from the article
Colvin said he was simply fixing “inefficiencies in the marketplace.” Some areas of the country need these products more than others, and he’s helping send the supply toward the demand.
“There’s a crushing overwhelming demand in certain cities right now,” he said. “The Dollar General in the middle of nowhere outside of Lexington, Kentucky, doesn’t have that.”
He thought about it more.
“I honestly feel like it’s a public service,” he added. “I’m being paid for my public service.”
March 15th, 2020 at 12:30 PM ^
1. What a fucking absurd, tone-deaf double down.
2. You just know the reporter had to smile a bit when he heard that last nugget.
March 15th, 2020 at 12:39 PM ^
Saw this guy on a local news report. What he is conveniently omitting is that he was trying to upsell his hand sanitizer for like $70 on Amazon and got removed for price gouging. He tried to take advantage of the situation to screw average people, it didn't work, and I guess now he's trying to pretend he's some good samaritan so someone will bail him out
Hopefully his house will just be a storage facility for those items for the next two decades. What a twice used douche!
He already made a solid $80k of profit on just one other product he was selling. He is still living fine
This is a shitty excuse, but no different than many services like Uber/Lyft use to justify surge pricing.
It's basically "we're ensuring that people who REALLY want this good/service and happily willing to pay exorbitant prices in order to make sure they get what they want", conveniently neglecting the fact that people who equally need that same good/service, but don't have top dollar are completely priced out.
The "we're fixing inefficiencies in the marketplace" argument is definitely valid up to a point. But when you're jacking up prices 500%, you're just gouging.
He created the "market inefficiency" by going to every dollar store and small market in multiple states nearby and buying them all out, then jacking up the price. Those places had sufficient supply for their populations, but this asshole took them all and then cried scarcity.
I fundamentally believe in capitalism, but that's where he screwed up. Don't create the shortage you're trying to profit from. If he had a still in his garage and was making homemade sanitizer, go ahead and knock yourself out selling them for whatever you want. This dude is no better than a scalper.
you know, that stuff is pretty flammable
Exactly. I'm pretty free market, but there does come a tipping point if nearly all supply is controlled by too few interests. Then the market is no longer free.
March 15th, 2020 at 12:12 PM ^
I hope that guy can’t sell the stuff and ends up in a net loss financially.
He can't. Price gouging is illegal. The attorney general's office in Tennessee is investigating him.
They should force him to pay back every dime he made up to this point in sales and then hit him with an asshole tax
I’m sure the fines he gets from breaking the law will ensure a huge net loss on this adventure.
He will promise to donate to the Governor's re-election fund :)
March 15th, 2020 at 12:13 PM ^
This is why I hate people
March 15th, 2020 at 12:16 PM ^
OR you could use soap and water, which is totally preferable to hand sanitizer in the first place in terms of efficacy. And soap is not sold out at the grocery store.
March 15th, 2020 at 12:23 PM ^
yes, but if for instance you are a grocery store clerk, a TSA agent etc who should be frequenters resanitizing your hands, hand sanitizer is significantly more practical. Or if you do need to go out to the dr, store etc, you might want to hand sanitize right away.
Yes I use hand sanitizer when I get in the car before I touch anything, then wash with soap and water when I get home.
I remember reading at the beginning of flu season that you’d have to scrub with hand sanitizer for SIX MINUTES to get flu A off your hands. So soap and water thoroughly for 20+ seconds seems more practical.
Correction. I guess it was only 4 min.
Correction. I guess it was only 4 min.
March 15th, 2020 at 12:28 PM ^
People like that are oxygen thieves.
March 15th, 2020 at 12:32 PM ^
Crime
March 15th, 2020 at 12:42 PM ^
Wow. What a piece of trash.... like every other person trying to, or actually profiting from something like this. The quote in there “i feel like I’m doing a good service”. Are you fucking kidding me!!!
these are the stories that get me way too heated
Yeah this guy, and others like him, are fucking assholes. This douche bag should be thrown in jail.
I get the obvious good humor, but ...
... that was a lousy decision. I wouldn't trade a 48-pack TP bundle for any amount of shitty, mass-marketed USA beer.
Not sure why you are getting downvoted. I thought you hit the nail right on the head. I'd take just 1 square of TP over a case of Bud.
I would do the same.
There are smarter and better-connected versions of this guy. Example:
He and the rest of the parasitic idiots can shove their stockpiled wipes up their heinies while drinking hand sanitizer cocktails, serves them right!
In the NYT version of this article, they say he's now looking into a path to donate the goods. I hope he does, because he's going to need all his military training and more otherwise.
People like these always get what’s coming to them in the end.
I think price “gouging”should be allowed. That would prevent shortages. Supply and demand. Higher prices encourages more production, until the price starts to lower. If the price is unreasonably high, demand will drop. Artificially capping the price gives us suboptimal results.
Supply chain is my profession, and I can’t think of a more kindergarten-level explanation of supply and demand as you have just offered here.
Meh. I got the best grade in my supply chain class. Also the best in my economics classes.
Make an argument. You are the kindergartener here.
Explain how an artificially low price encourages more production. Please.
It wasn't an artificially low price. It was a normal price set by the market that allowed manufacturers and other companies in the supply chain to make a profit.
There is a sudden surge in demand for a few products. Production will go up to meet demand, but there was no way for it to happen in two days. Profiteers aren't helping anyone but themselves.
You are making a moralistic argument rather than an economic argument.
It’s a product in extremely high demand, as you say. Demand curve shifted right. Supply curve stayed the same. Pretty simple. True market price is higher than normal, as evidenced by the shortages. Price controls create shortages.
Give companies as much incentive as possible to produce more - that means higher prices, short term. It also means more competition and substitute products. All good things. But you don’t get there unless you let the market work. The market as a whole is smarter than the government.
Economics in One Lesson - read it.
Is that how we handled shortages during WW2? This is a national emergency, not just a shortage.
I think you are mixing up two distinctive things. Profiteers trying to take advantage before producers have a chance to respond and how the producers will respond.
I predict the producers are working hard to satisfy a spike in demand. If they need to raise prices, they will. But they will still have competitors and a government watching for price gouging. I've yet to see a half decent argument supporting the people buying up supplies so that can jack up the prices to whatever the desperate will pay.
Btw, you're very good at talking down to people. Far better than at making your points.
This guy isn't producing shit. He's creating shortages and then price-gouging the people his hording denied the opportunity to pay (higher) market prices. He shifted the supply curve himself.
This is really basic economics, and you don't seem to understand it.
Glad to see your “2” classes prepared you for pandemic pricing of goods and services. ?
March 16th, 2020 at 12:59 AM ^
"You are making a moralistic argument rather than an economic argument."
No shit, sherlock. Moral considerations!? Oh my!
This guy created the shortage in his area by buying up all the hand sanitizer.
He wouldn’t have been able to do that if the price was higher to begin with.
HailHail47, I completely agree with you. Price gouging should be seen as a welcome solution to crises such as the one we are currently experiencing. If the price of necessities, such as hand sanitizer were raised to meet the public’s demand, no one would have bought all of the supply in the first place.
The market allocates scarce resources correctly if it is allowed to work. It’s not going to be allowed to work with knee jerk moralistic arguments about profit being evil. I will happily pay a premium to Purell - and they can reinvest it to ramp up productions.
March 15th, 2020 at 11:07 PM ^
Lol, not only are you a shitty person, but you don’t understand supply, demand, or price gouging. Way to go
March 15th, 2020 at 11:59 PM ^
Except this guy isn’t reinvesting in production. He has nothing to do with production.
Moralistic arguments? You're claiming to ignore them to preserve the integrity of your economic model, but the opposite is true. You've just placed a lower price on the value of public health interest and the small handful of actual lives impacted by the short term supply and demand of a couple specific commodities. And in a very condescending way