"Price gouging" shouldn't even be a thing. In the mid 70s oil crisis I was a delivery driver for my father's pharmacy. Rather than spend my day waiting on line or waiting for our "odd/even" ration day, we bought gas for cash from a small gas station who charged twice as much. He was happy. My dad was happy. I did the same thing as an adult during hurricane Sandy.

"Reasonable people, of course, have little problem with immigrants who come to the US and build up businesses through investment and hard work." I dont believe this is price gouging, if people are willing to buy at that price. If you dont like the price, you can drive 100 miles away and buy gasoline elsewhere for the price you like.

This reminds me of an argument I once had with a highly educated relative who was complaining that immigrants were being "exploited" on the job market with slave wages.

I was trying to explain to her that there's nothing fairer than a price when both parties voluntary agree, that the immigrants were getting exactly what they were worth that moment in time on the job market, and that the alternative, no job, would be far worse for them. I knew exactly, from personal experience, what I was talking about but my Harvard educated relative did not.

She was speechless, and could not understand that I confidently expressed such "horrible" views. We were not in good terms for several years after that incident.😅

That being said, this is a good way to put a target on your back for social media activists, especially doing this during a crisis.

To do this a little more smartly, you should keep the lower priced signs but conveniently "run out" of the lower priced options.

Not that I would advocate for such a thing, mind you. I'd probably opt to keep prices only slightly raised during a crisis period because my marginal value of social capital is probably higher than my marginal value for a dollar.