No no, I didn't necessarily mean gas bars because more times than not, they're on the losing end of it all (even before a crisis hits some where). I meant that I'm willing to guess that some one some where (at the top of the ladder) is making a dime off of it though. (Does that make sense?)
Praying for you all and everyone else around there. My cousin and all of his mom's family live Louisiana so praying they stay safe
That is true to some extent. My dad works for a gas delivery company, and says to expect a 10 cent increase at the pump. Price gouging is a reality though. Our Walmart stations stated consistent over the last few days, while others raised their prices up to $0.30/gal. On the coast stations were running out as people prepared for Issac.
But is that gouging, or survival? Given that all those "fill-ups" represent (mostly) people leaving the area, and power outages will mean no pumping ability anyhow, are they gouging, or prepping their business for several days worth of no customers?
I don't know what the limit to raise prices is. The MS governor warned against it. Batteries were the huge product in question with some stores charging double and triple for packs of batteries.
I so agree. But when demand goes up, supply goes down. Not because there's no production, but because everybody wants gas, and the delivery truck won't be able to get there for a few days past the regular delivery schedule. When everybody wants what only you have, you can pretty much charge whatever you want and get away with it. I don't expect anybody with gasoline to be giving it away like people with water and ice have done in the aftermath. BTW, where I live, it's almost 5 pm. The wind has picked up some, but not bad. The sky is still bright blue behind the puffy white clouds. DGS and I went to school and did school today. All 3 big kids stayed home... The public schools were closed. Looks like to me they wasted a perfectly good school day. :roll:
We stayed put through Audrey (big killer storm in the 50s) and every other hurricane that's been through here. Except one of those a few years ago... I forget which one. After a while, they kind of run together in your mind, y'know? We were already scheduled to head to north Louisiana for a family reunion, so it was just "according to plan" for us that year. The toughest part for us is doing without the air conditioning when there's no power, because my house has those old jalousie windows, that are so old they don't open anymore. Around here, if your freezer stays off too long because the power's out, you just bust out the barbecue pit/grill/camp stove and start cooking! Then you have an after-hurricane party and invite everyone around, to eat up all the food so it doesn't just go to waste. People that don't have any smell it cooking and follow their noses. And are pretty much welcome.
This is a fine example of what I meant earlier (though when I was typing it, I was thinking of gasoline as well). LOL, maybe a good reason why being a business owner wouldn't be a profitable for me because I'm the one who would be giving things away :lol:
It looks like the MS governor is taking price gouging seriously. http://www.wlox.com/story/19412614/jackson-gas-station-owner-accused-of-price-gouging From this article, it seems that during a state of emergency, owners cannot raise prices on certain items over a certain profit margin. This station is 3 hours north of the coast and where many who evacuated are staying.
Well, here, Isaac is pretty much a non-event. Public schools were out yesterday and today in anticipation of bad weather, but in our area of the state, not much has happened. We had school yesterday and today. In the southeast part of the state, though, it's pretty ROUGH! New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lake Pontchartrain area, pretty rough. Parts of the I-10 were under five feet of water, lots of deep flooding in low-lying areas. Homes lost. Pray for them.
We have friends in Baton Rouge who suffered some minor damage and flooding in their home. My dh said there was an enormous amount of water on the MS coast. He hasn't left the house since Tuesday morning because of road flooding. Parts of the MS coast were hit harder than others. Our area wasn't the hardest hit, but I think the coastal counties suffered some damage. The rivers won't peak until later, so flooding is still a real threat.
We are back home and all OK. There are some limbs down, mulch all over the drive and walkways, and nasty windows to clean, but we came out of Issac well. We have a metal roof, so we don't have the roof damage that some have. Our yard was flooded, but stopped just below the door frame. All that is gone now, and we just have some minor clean-up to do. If I get out today, I'll take some pictures. Just a few miles away, 3 boat owners didn't follow the mandatory evacuation of boats in the harbor. Those boats are now in the street. :roll:
We're having rain again today, but other than a slow, intermittent rain and tons of mosquitoes, that's all the Isaac we've had here. Glad your family and your property is safe, six!
We've fared much better than expected, too. A few rock-n-rollin storms yesterday and today, but not long enough for the flash flooding we feared.
