Bestbuy trying to sell water for $40/ case in Houston!

[bmwrdr]

They are just scum in my opinion and won't see me as a customer anymore!

A Houston Best Buy Was Seen Selling Packs of Water for More Than $40; Now Says It Was a ‘Big Mistake’

https://www.theroot.com/a-houston-texas ... 1798620515

[Munk]

Do the math. $42.96/24= $1.79 per bottle.

Seems to be the going rate for that water in the 7-11's.

[bmwrdr]

Do the math. $42.96/24= $1.79 per bottle.

Seems to be the going rate for that water in the 7-11's.

Naybe so but the fact they tried to advertise it for that price in a catastrophic situation seems like they tried to use the situation for a particular benefit. On the other hand I haven't heard of a BestBuy contribution for disaster relief. Just my $.02.

[The Annoyed Man]

Best Buy in Houston could have taken an example from a friend of mine, who loaded up his pickup truck with cases of water and food, on his own nickel plus a few cash donations from his friends (including from me), and left this morning from Dallas for Houston to bring succor to his fellow Texans. Best Buy might not be overcharging, and they are certainly within their rights to sell the water. But...... they could have also donated the water and taken a tax write-off, not to mention give themselves some good PR and build good will with their customer base. Private citizens are putting them to shame.

[bmwrdr]

Best Buy in Houston could have taken an example from a friend of mine, who loaded up his pickup truck with cases of water and food, on his own nickel plus a few cash donations from his friends (including from me), and left this morning from Dallas for Houston to bring succor to his fellow Texans. Best Buy might not be overcharging, and they are certainly within their rights to sell the water. But...... they could have also donated the water and taken a tax write-off, not to mention give themselves some good PR and build good will with their customer base. Private citizens are putting them to shame.

Agreed to all points.

Instead they blame it on a mistake of an employee now. And as I said, just a bad example in my opinion!

[rotor]

Big penalty for price gouging (if that's what they are doing) in Texas during an emergency. If person being gouged is over 65 penalty can be $250,000.

[bmwrdr]

Big penalty for price gouging (if that's what they are doing) in Texas during an emergency. If person being gouged is over 65 penalty can be $250,000.

That is a good law to combat the predatory gold miners!

[eieio1]

Maybe I should take my father-in-law (87 years old) to buy a case of water?

[bmwrdr]

Maybe I should take my father-in-law (87 years old) to buy a case of water?

Well, that could cause a donation to the state of Texas :-) Go for it.

[rentz]

HomeDepot did the same thing, when it went viral they changed it to $1.49 each

[cyphertext]

I believe them when they say they just took the price of a bottle in the cooler at the front of the store and multiplied it by the number of bottles in the case... I don't see any "gouging" here... Besides, who goes to Best Buy to purchase water?

[The Marshal]

In contrast Bass Pro donated EIGHTY Tracker Boats to help out with the Houston flooding.
Nice.
Lowe Boats sent a trailer full of flat bottom boats to Houston.

I hope that Ruger will step up and donate AR-15s to the homeowners. Heheh

[Soccerdad1995]

I believe them when they say they just took the price of a bottle in the cooler at the front of the store and multiplied it by the number of bottles in the case... I don't see any "gouging" here... Besides, who goes to Best Buy to purchase water?

Who goes to Best Buy to buy water? Anyone who can't get anywhere else that has water for sale.

Shortages mean there will be rationing of resources. Left alone, that rationing will happen through prices. In this case, people would buy as much bottled water as they needed, but they would also have a natural disincentive to buy way more than they could possibly need due to high prices. I have close to 100 gallons of good, drinkable, tap water in a bathtub, but I also have as much bottled water as I could get my hands on because the bottled water was cheap and it tastes better. But if that bottled water had been extremely expensive, I would have just relied on the tap water (it is sitting in a water bob, FWIW).

But we limit the price that folks can charge by banning "price gouging", so the rationing occurs in other ways. Some stores like HEB limited purchases of water to 2 cases per customer on Friday (they have been out since then). Absent price or quantity controls, the rationed water will go to the first people in line.

The bottom line is that until we bring more drinking water into the affected areas, some will go without. Government and private actions only change who that "some" are. I applaud those who take the initiative to bring needed resources here with no profit motive. They are truly wonderful human beings. But the fact is that if we allowed a profit motive, then other, less wonderful, people would do the same, and the net result is that we would have more needed resources in the area sooner.