Saturday, September 09, 2017

No "Price Gouging" in the Gainesville Area Yet ...

... at least that I can see.

Some items are in short supply. The shelves everywhere are empty of bread, and it's hard to find batteries or bottled water.

But yesterday evening we visited the Save-A-Lot in Archer.

One of the items on our list was "more water, if we see any" (we thought we could use one more case, wanted one to give our older neighbor who insists on weathering the storm in situ, and any more could be dropped off at our church, which is operating as a shelter). We didn't expect to find any water, but we were keeping an eye out for it.

The store is located on a small highway that runs north out of Tampa. Lots of traffic, and probably 100 vehicles lined up for gas at the convenience store next door. But when we walked in, there were pallets of bottled water ... priced at $2.50 cents per case of 24 16.9 oz. bottles. Limit two cases per customer, but certainly not any "price gouging" going on.

Same thing in Gainesville -- if you can find the things you're looking for, the stores aren't doing disaster pricing. But they are closing down. Some today, most starting tomorrow.

Our plans are still contingent on the forecasts.

As of tomorrow morning, if it looks like Irma will hit Gainesville as a Category 3 storm or higher, we plan to head for northern Mississippi using back roads (the freeways are pretty much parking lots; the smaller roads look busy, but not nearly as bad). I'll be packing today with that in mind.

If it looks like we'll get by with Category 2, we'll go to our church, which is a nice stout building and pet friendly.

If Category 1, we'll either ride it out at the house or go to the church.

I'll try to get a podcast out some time today, because I don't want to break my new weekly streak. If you've got any questions for Thanks For Asking!, get them in ASAP.

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