Texans cry foul over price gouging for bottled water, gas and $1,000 hotel rooms

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Some businesses in Texas are hitting consumers when they’re down.

Lina Hidalgo, the judge Harris County, the largest county in Texas, said this week that Houston residents, already hit by power outages and severe weather, have complained about exploitative prices. “We’ve heard reports of outrageous prices on necessary items like food, water and housing. We will not tolerate price gouging. Violators can face fines of up to $250,000,” she wrote on Twitter.

“The main types of things we’re seeing is hotels setting prices at ridiculous rates,” Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee told the Associated Press. “We’ve seen allegations of packs of water being sold for two to three times the normal price, or packs of water being divvied up and the individual bottles being sold at excessive prices.”

In one case, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts in Austin advertised a room for $999 per night. In a statement, the hotel told KVUE television news: “We do not tolerate price gouging and require that hotels comply with all local, state and federal laws. In speaking with the owner of this hotel, which is independently owned and operated as a franchise, it’s our understanding that the temporary rate increases seen online were the result of the property working to close out its inventory as it managed the loss of power and other utilities.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/amid-water-shortages-and-power-outages-texans-cry-foul-over-price-gouging-for-bottled-water-gas-and-dollar1000-hotel-rooms/ar-BB1dPzsT?li=BBnb7Kz

[soothsayer]

1. Capitalism! Die so others can profit. Texas thanks you

[RainCaster]

2. I thought Texans are all about free market economy

and all that crap. Now they want socialism and pricing regulations?
I'm sure that by the next elections, this will all be forgotten.

[DSandra]

7. They are not really against socialism, just socialism for the masses

They are perfectly ok with socialism for the rich.

[jpak]

3. Good luck with TX GOQ

You reap what you sow.

Yup

[Bettie]

4. As I understand it, that is the

Republican way...capitalism rules, if you can't pay....die.

I feel for the people who didn't vote for this crap, but the people who did? They have only themselves to blame.

[LizBeth]

5. I worked hotel for a while and that was one part of the job I really had an issue with.

Sometimes I could hardly stomach the increase for a specific event or reason. Especially when the situation was not opti0onal and people had to participate like orientation at university for kids or something. Parents poor enough getting kids in university buying all the shit needed then rooms 200 or more over normal price. I mean a concert or something is optional, but something like that, is not.

[getagrip_already]

6. Socialism!!!!!!

Can't have that federalist thinking in texus!

[musette_sf]

8. Wyndham Austin $999/night?

I have a tip from Heidi Cruz that the Ritz-Carlton in Cancun is only $309/night! Ted and Heidi were just trying to be good stewards!

[tanyev]

9. It starts at the top. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (re: Covid March 2020):

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, chiming in to support President Donald Trump's new focus on the economy over fierce warnings from public health officials, suggested on Fox News on Monday night that he would rather die from the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus than see instability in the American economic system.

"No one reached out to me and said, 'As a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren?' And if that's the exchange, I'm all in," he said. "And that doesn't make me noble or brave or anything like that.

https://www.texastribune.org/2020/03/23/texas-lt-gov-dan-patrick-says-bad-economy-worse-coronavirus/

[kairos12]

10. Non-regulated market solutions.