Retailers Respond To HDD Squeeze By Limiting Purchases, Raising Prices 282
SKYMTL writes "With Thailand experiencing its worst flooding in generations, component manufacturers have been especially hard hit. The trickle down effect is having a huge impact upon hard drive manufacturers in particular. Retailers have responded by drastic price increases and even limiting hard drive purchases to 1-2 drives per person."
Price discovery make distribution efficient (Score:4, Insightful)
This is a good example of how raising prices works to distribute whatever resources in efficient manner, allowing those, who truly need whatever the resource (HDDs in this case) to come up with the largest bid on it, which means that the resource was most needed for that situation. It definitely beats artificial rationing.
Can you say gouge? (Score:4, Insightful)
Jesus titty fucking christ.
From 75 to 100 dollars in one day. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136697
Its like the industry is begging for SSDs to take their market. /begging/
This isn't supply shortage it's price gouging. The industry has consolidated to four players, and one of them only makes laptop drives. Expect more of this shit in the future. Expect an SEC probe too and finding of price fixing, followed by a slap on the wrist a decade later. Fire in a dram factory anyone? Fuck me.
Re:Price Spikes (Score:5, Insightful)
Classic PR tick to fake scarcity to make a bad deal appear better than it is. 99% of customers would only buy 1 anyway.
It means that they've changed from hi-tech marketing to commodity marketing like your grocery store always uses.
Also, people are dying (Score:5, Insightful)
Over 300 people have died (not huge, I know, but still not small... and the fact that I can say with all honesty that 300 deaths seems small says volumes by itself), homes and lives are ruined, ancient temples are threatened... and what Americans are most worried about is the fact that they have to pay an extra 20-30% for hard drives. Just to put this in perspective. TFA does at least have the decency to issue a "our hearts go out blah blah" at the end.
Just watch, the next story will be something about Occupy Wall Street and people protesting those huge companies and all the cheap goods they make. Really, Americans (and most of the rest of the world) really need to look closely at the consumerism that has overcome our culture to the point people dying seems far less significant than money. I realize this is a tech/ nerd site (so it wouldn't focus on the deaths anyways), but still, this is the second story about this with no mention (as far as I remember) about all the other effects this flooding is having.
Re:Price discovery make distribution efficient (Score:1, Insightful)
you are observing free market in action with the HDDs here being priced higher than previously. If no gov't steps in and starts distorting the market with regulations on who may sell HDDs to whom and at what price and what the rules are, etc., then you are observing the market as it is supposed to function.
As to entire nations running free market economies - USA 19 century basically, and China today basically. They are as free market economies as we have observed in the last 200 years.
We also have pretty good references to very non-free market economies, command economies and how 'well' they do, also in the same time frame.
Re:Price discovery make distribution efficient (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Price Spikes (Score:5, Insightful)
Mirroring is the easiest form of backup.
*giggles*