Gouged by Peter Cottontail

I was gouged over the weekend. No, I'm not talking about 'mother-in-law-gouging-my-eyes-out' gouging. I'm talking about 'evil-merchant-overcharging-because-they-have-you-over-the-barrel' gouging. Let me explain.

In the spirit of celebrating Easter, and in hopes of providing a little enjoyment by way of an egg hunt for my five year old son (as well as to score a few brownie points with my wife), I joined the throng of shoppers on the seasonal Easter aisle at the local super discount store in search of Easter candy this past Friday evening. Of course, the manufacturers of the candy and store management had collaborated to make every possible form of delectable goodness imaginable related to the Easter holiday available in the aisles of that store at that precise time. After all, they knew their markets, and knew that 99% of people planning to have an Easter celebration would be planning their events to coincide with the weekend on the calendar in which Easter falls. Some people may have their Easter-egg hunts in the middle of July, but I suspect these folks would represent a very small fraction of all Easter celebrants.

Alas, after much pondering, and not a little jockeying for position in the aisle, I selected a few bags of delicious confections guaranteed to have my son bouncing off the walls for hours. I would have liked to have gotten the goodies for free, but two dollars for a bag of chocolate covered malt eggs (in August they are referred to as malt balls, I believe) seemed a reasonable price to pay, considering the benefits of putting on the egg hunt and the goodwill it would foster in the family. So I paid the cashier and went happily on my way. Unfortunately, that happiness wouldn't last very long.

You see Monday morning I happened to be back in the same store, on the same aisle again, but this time I was shopping for myself. It seems egg-shaped, chocolate covered malt balls are particularly addicting to my taste buds. I had exhausted a seemingly endless supply over the weekend and had to have more. Luckily, I knew right where to find them. But would there be any left after the candy-craving Easter crowd had worked over the candy aisle?

Not only were there some left over, but, in fact, there were still plenty to choose from. Feeling relieved, I grabbed for a bag. Just as I reached for it, however, a big red sticker on the package caught my eye. The price had been reduced. The package that had cost me two dollars only hours earlier was now available for only 50 cents. Apparently, the store was not confident that their other customers would come back in the same fervor for their Easter-related wares as I had. In fact, it seemed perhaps they were quite worried that they would not be able to sell the Easter-related items at all and would be forced to take a complete loss on the left-over inventory. In order to avoid this prospect, they had lowered the price of my candy by more than 75 percent in hopes that others who did not share my addiction might be drawn in by the lower prices and take the inventory off of their hands. I helped them out in this area by slipping four of the now-cheaper bags of candy into my cart.

A quick look around the aisle revealed a similar pricing strategy on almost every item related to the holiday. I was horrified. Marshmallow bunnies that had sold for 25 cents a piece were now available in counts of 20 for one dollar. Caramel-filled chocolate eggs previously offered for 97 cents were now available for a dime. What outrage! I had been victimized!

If the producers and sellers of my candy were now able to accept such low prices without the fear of going out of business, then it was only reasonable to assume that I had been taken advantage of for the remainder of the price that I paid. This was simply extra money that the evil candy manufacturers had charged me because they knew that I would pay it for fear of disappointing my son and losing the aforementioned brownie points with my wife. Simply put, they had taken advantage of me at my most vulnerable moment. I had come to them when I needed their product most, and they had exploited me.

I started to think about it. It seemed that last winter I had been similarly gouged on a box of hearts with little notes written on them. These boxes of hearts always seem to magically appear everywhere around February 14th of each year. I recalled even further back, and I remembered being gouged on some lights to string up around my house around the 3rd week of December last year. Around one Thursday in November I had been terribly gouged on the price of a Turkey. And the July 4th weekend last summer, I was gouged on the price of a gallon of gasoline.

I decided to talk all this gouging over with my coworkers in the breakroom one morning this week. When I mentioned the high price of gasoline we could all expect this summer, the mere mention of the subject touched off a lively debate. People wanted to know how the oil companies could get away with such a thing and what the government could do to remedy the situation. A host of suggestions were put forth on how to solve the problem. However, the conversation was much less animated when I mentioned the high prices of Easter candy I had encountered over the weekend. So I asked them, and now I ask the reader: Is there any discernible difference in what the two industries are doing? Of course not.

The reality is that Easter eggs are more expensive around Easter because that is precisely when demand is highest for them. In turn, when demand decreases (like the Monday after Easter) the amount that candy producers charge for their products decreases as well. The same principle applies to Valentines hearts, Christmas lights, Thanksgiving turkeys and, yes, summer gasoline.

Summer brings about a level of demand for gasoline that is not seen the year round. Kids are out of school. Trips to Granma's house are made in the summer that are not made during the winter. Vacations are taken to sun-bathed theme parks that are not even in operation during the winter months. More gas is needed for automobiles making long, cross-country trips. More jet fuel is needed for planes taking vacationers to exotic locations.

Mowers, edgers and blowers are fired up during the summer months that lie dormant at other times of the year. Boats are out on the water that stay covered up during the winter. RV's are out on the road that stay parked at other times. Any person with the smallest capacity of common sense knows that we consume more gasoline in the summer than at any other time during the year, and organizations such as AAA back those facts up with mounds of statistics.

However, we somehow refuse to let our minds believe that an increase in demand for this product will or should lead to the same results as an increase in demand for any other product. The price of gasoline will necessarily go up in the summer because of the decrease in demand for the product at that time. It is not gouging any more than expensive candy is at Easter time or expensive house lights are at Christmas time.

The truth is that all producers and sellers of products try to position their products in front of their customers at the time when it is most in demand because that is precisely the time they can make the most money. In fact, without the prospect of these profits, sellers would have no incentive whatsoever to even supply their products in the first place. In fact, it may be that higher profits in one part of the year make up for losses or smaller than normal profits in another part of the year.

In the particular case of gas, we seem to forget that we can avoid the effects of the higher prices of the summer months by staying home more and consuming less gas during these months. However, few of us are willing to take such drastic measures.

Could it possibly be that this is how free markets are supposed to work? High prices in times of demand discourage overbuying that creates shortages. Low prices encourage buying in times of surplus. And profits (high or low) encourage producers to match their supply to the demand of consumers. I believe it is.

So the next time you see gasoline at it's highest price at just about the time you are filling up to go on vacation, think twice before you accuse the oil man of gouging you. Unless you're willing to go after the Easter Bunny as well.