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0 pointskoheripbal6y ago0 comments

The best solution is to increase production to the point where all those hoarders are left with tons of worthless inventory.

0 comments

17 comments · 7 top-level

gruez6y ago· 4 in thread

then they just return their inventory for a full refund.

yyy888sss6y ago

Australian supermarkets are refusing refunds on all of these hoarded goods.

gruez6y ago

I wonder whether that's legal or not. Presumably they bought the goods before this thing blew up and the terms of sale at the time of purchase allowed for returns. Are stores allowed to retroactively change their return ploicy? Do they have a "we can deny returns for any reason" clause in their return policy? Is that legal?

3 more replies

scruple6y ago

I'd love to see that stateside, too. I have to go out for some regular old run of the mill groceries tomorrow morning, I'm going to ask about refund/return policies at the two grocers that we frequent.

coredog646y ago

IMO, ensuring sufficient stock and refusing refunds will be a more thorough punishment than some half-enforced CA law on price gouging.

jbay8086y ago· 2 in thread

People are saying this like they just walked out of an econ 101 class.

It's expensive to tool up your production line for extra production when you'll just have to shut it down again a few weeks later as the surplus makes its way through the system. Why would a toilet paper plant operator do that? They know that average consumption of toilet paper hasn't increased whatsoever.

eigenvector6y ago

Evidently people would rather ramp up entire supply chains of toilet paper (which include, let's remember, actual people cutting down actual trees and involve capital-intensive facilities like pulp mills that take years to build) than admit that there's a market failure and punish the handful of bad actors who are hoarding.

anigbrowl6y ago

I had this argument with a lot of people last week. People learn the basic concept of supply and demand and suddenly think they're economists, which is like learning to write a loop and thinking you're a developer.

6gvONxR4sf7o6y ago· 2 in thread

Sure if it were as easy as that. In normal circumstances, it wouldn't be easy, nor as quick as demand shifts. In a time when supply chains are disrupted and we're all WFH to slow a pandemic, expecting another industry to drastically increase production seems like a false hope at best and an immoral one at worst.

dillonmckay6y ago

So the market is functioning as intended based on the circumstances.

sharemywin6y ago

And so are the price gouging laws.

chrisseaton6y ago· 2 in thread

> all those hoarders are left with tons of worthless inventory

How can toilet paper become worthless? You're always going to need to use it yourself even.

nerfhammer6y ago

worthless in that it won't be worth more than they bought it for.

chrisseaton6y ago

I'm not sure what's what 'worthless' means.

skywhopper6y ago

Why is that the best solution? The actual need for toilet paper has not gone up. So increasing capacity would just be a waste of money for manufacturers. They know this too and aren’t stupid enough to try it.

pasquinelli6y ago

Isn't that tons of wasted work and materials?

mitchdoogle6y ago

Seems like the best solution is to take the markets away for these sellers to price gouge, which is what's happening.. and introduce punishments for anyone who tries to get around these measures.

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