I have no inclination to delve into the murky motivations that are causing these shortages. However, I'd like to review what economics tells us about the situation. These goods that are flying off the shelves as soon as they're stocked all have prices. Producers have determined that they can maximize their profit at a certain price, selling a certain quantity. Consumers have demonstrated that they're willing to buy a certain quantity at a certain price. Now, all of a sudden, demand has sky-rocketed, and customers are buying more. According to the law of supply and demand, when demand increases and supply remains the same, price will rise. The rise in price and consequent rise in ROI is a signal for producers to devote more resources to the production of the good in question until the ROI falls back to the average level. Assuming no other changes, this causes the price to fall back to the pre-crisis level as well.
Enter the prejudice against gouging. Gouging is thought to be immoral (though no one has ever explained why), and there is strong feeling against gougers, such that most store owners are not willing to raise prices.
This unwillingness to raise prices has two bad effects:
1. Hoarders can continue to pursue their anti-social activities at a lower cost to themselves. Economics tells us that even the hoarder's demand must fall off at some price. Not raising prices in the face of increased demand enables hoarding.
2. Higher prices defray the producers' costs of ramping up production. Without the higher prices, producers may be looking at a loss on faster production. This loss will inevitably be borne by the producers: stockholders, managers, and employees. Ergo producers are not incentivized to increase production.
As a result of these two bad effects, consumers will fall into two classes: 1. The lucky or clever who manage to buy up all of the product at the pre-crisis price. 2. The unlucky who can't find the product for sale anywhere.
Stores, responding to complaints by their customers, have instituted rationing for some goods. However, this policy does not necessarily prevent shortages, unless the store is willing to keep track of the identities of all its customers and verify that they are not purchasing more than their fair share of product (if a "fair share" can be determined). Furthermore, a hoarder can hoard by visiting several stores at a time.
