Today I stopped at Costco after working at the food bank. I had to buy some things, but most importantly I had to return the laundry detergent I'd purchased. Naturally, not being aware of anything besides price, I'd bought a brand I was familiar with, but for some reason was on sale at a rate considerably cheaper than Costco's house brand. Seems like a deal. Until Mrs. Bulldog said "No, return it." So today was return day.
As I stood in line, I noticed the 3 people ahead of me having their returns rejected, which I thought was odd. I've returned a few things to Costco, and it's rarely a problem especially if you have a receipt or plan to use the credit immediately (as I intended to). When I got to the desk, I was told that Governor Murphy had passed a "Hoarding Law" which meant certain items couldn't be returned because they were deemed "essential" and the government had worried in March that hoarders would purchase large amounts to gouge prices. Laundry detergent is on the list.
Now, I really have no problem with price gouging. It's part of the natural turn of events in certain crises and will usually help increase production (which eventually drives down prices) and services to the areas which are impacted by a crisis. I don't even have a problem with hoarding. I'm not likely to do either of these things, but if others want to, that's their gig, not mine. But now I'm stuck dealing with this detergent and the ire of Mrs. Bulldog, clearly an event our governor, who is obviously kindly and greatly more intelligent than everyone else in the New Jersey area, doesn't care about. Actually, I'm less concerned with the ire of Mrs. Bulldog and really was more concerned with the people I noticed who were distraught because they'd purchased things they didn't want/need and just wanted to return them.
I should be clear that my Costco isn't exactly in a really wealthy part of my county. Lots of locals, many who probably have been very adversely affected by Covid, shop here. So seeing them getting upset at the counter didn't surprise me. But it's just an annoying example of how politicians insert themselves into everyday lives and make life difficult. Sure they "mean well" - but they rarely realize they are hurting the people they are trying to help more often than not.
