Purchase minimums. That's a novel approach. So basically you're encouraging customers to band together to make the minimum purchase at the necessary price. Novel indeed!

This really is a case for the morality of the marketplace. The question is what is sound business practice? Sound business practice is for buyers and sellers to encourage long-term relationships. The seller who is only in it to turn a quick profit at the expense of the buyer is surely going to do that at the expense of the good will which normally accompanies a business transaction which benefits both parties. If that ill will is noised abroad, that individual may find it difficult to obtain the things he/she needs for a "reasonable" price - karmic retribution if you ask me.

Regarding the individual who bought out the epi-pens, that individual abuses the notion of free trade. I would argue that the proper response is not to do business with him and sue him (when someone has a reaction) for gross negligence, with the judgement being confiscation of the epi-pens and distribution to those needing them. (I would also mention that in lieu of this, this guy is asking for somewhat justified vigilante justice...)

The best way to avoid hoarding is to allow the retailers to raise the prices as the demand rises.

If that is insufficient then the retailers can and should impose purchase minimums not maximums. Imagine if irregular Costco customers had to buy not just 48 rolls of toilet paper but 240 at 6x the regular unit price! That's how you stop 'casual' hoarders from peeling the shelves bare. Very few are going to lay out $1,000 for toilet paper.

I look at it this way:
1) I agree with John Stossel, that hoarding should not be a dirty word. I buy lots of something I value, nothing wrong with that.
2) When someone goes to a store for the sake of buying out the stock and then reselling at a 'gouge' level price, then there's a problem. The two men in Tennessee who went around and filled a delivery truck of products they cleared out of stores CREATED the shortage. They didn't add value, they artificially shortcut the supply.

Howard Roark added value. Henry Reardon added value. John Galt added value. Dagny Taggart added value. Nowhere in those novels were the hero's scrambling to create a market shortage just to gouge people who didn't get there first. That would be played out more by those characters depicted by the antagonists.

The 'heart' is a dumb muscle.
Listen to your head!

My local 99 Cent store shelves were quickly emptied of bottled water, sanitizer, toilet paper and paper towels as customers bought them by the cart load. COSTCO said they had been bringing in truck loads of the same items every day for 3 weeks and selling out by 10AM every day. They kept prices the same, but had begun rationing some things.

I went to Bristol Farms and Whole Foods and found ample supplies of everything I needed, but at a higher (every day) price. Am I supposed to be ashamed for supporting "price gougers"?

But what about that guy who bought out the source of Epi-Pens and the raised prices by 1000 per cent? Your thoughts?

"The question of ethics comes in when supplies are so short..."

In a free market, however, doesn't this encourage entry into the market for competitors seeking to make a profit? What is the real barrier to entry? Is it resource or artificial constraint, i.e. government? Remember, it requires two parties for a transaction: a seller AND a buyer. If both do so out of their own free will, isn't that by definition the free market?

My heart says I should have bought when the price was low or at least before it hits the top. My head says "Duh!!

The fine line between profit from a crisis and extreme profit from a crisis. Profit to be able to grow the business is necessary. If one site sells sanitizer for $30 a bottle and another site sells the same product for $15, the market should self-correct. The question of ethics comes in when supplies are so short that the infrastructure is affected, i.e. when emergency and medical personnel can no longer get those supplies. Let us hope that we figure this out before we reach that point.

The heart says that because of envy - you envy what you want and don't have. The brain says that the only way to get it is to pay more for it - which only happens when people are willing to sell what they have and are willing to trade.

My heart says panic buying and hoarding are evil.
My head says low stock levels and higher prices encourage more production.