@five_eyes,
At least one other post on these boards has mentioned that increased prices of high-demand items may not actually be due to price gouging, but rather to increased costs.
Some of those increased costs are the result of increased freight (for instance, fewer planes, more people involved - such as those deep sanitising the planes, tighter border controls, etc.) businesses struggling to survive having to factor in some costs which previously they could absorb, factories having to pay overtime and employ additional staff to make sanitiser or P2/N95 masks and other PPE, and getting the raw materials for everything made, some of which are costing more because of regular supplies already being allocated... This ridiculous panic-buying creates a gap because of people buying far more than is the case regularly, which means regular supply chains are disrupted, and when businesses all around Australia (and indeed globally) have somehow to obtain enormous quanities in a hurry (completely replenishing some items), the unavoidable result is that costs go up.
I can only applaud the efforts of pharmacies and medical suppliers throughout Australia for doing their very best to meet the present demand in a time of trouble. If something looks too expensive, I won't assume that the seller is price-gouging. (I will still seek the best price on any item that I'm buying, of course, but sometimes it's a case of ... well... does one need the item? Yes? Is there any way to bargain down the price? No? Then is it available anywhere else? No? Okay, grab that item and pay what's being asked before someone else goes through this thought process faster than I.)
If it IS price-gouging - which means I have a reasonable suspicion of the item's cost price at the time of its being obtained from the supplier, and the price is a lot higher than the cost price can justify, and it's an item whose availability in a time of great trouble is artificially scarce, so that the seller is profiteering from disaster - well, then, I suppose I might gouge out the miscreant's eye à la Duke of Cornwall and say, "Now THAT is gouging." (Or not. I can't truly imagine myself plucking out anyone's eye, no matter how much of a profiteerer they may be.)
