No Free Market

Our house has a combo oven/microwave.  It's okay but not great for cooking.  Our cooktop is a glass top induction model that uses special pans. So we decided to buy a gas grill with a gas burner because we prefer it to ovens with broilers and electric burners. We went to Kooiman (our favorite Home Depot type store) and got a  grill with a side burner.  

Rick puts it together on the patio. It does not come with a propane tank nor does Kooiman sell tanks.

There is only one company that sells propane and tanks at only one facility on the island.  Curoil has a monopoly on the island. Asko, our favorite food truck owner, gives us directions to the facility.  Nothing has an address here. It's just directions using landmarks. So we head to the propane company, which is located on a dusty country road in the middle of nowhere.

At the Curoil facility, we are told that they currently have no propane tanks and it will be three weeks until they come in.  It can not  be ordered and they do not take names to reserve one.  If we already had a tank and wanted to exchange it for a full tank then we could get that done on Tuesday (today is Friday) on a first come first serve basis. 

We ask if we can buy one on the spot.  No, that was not possible.  Only one per customer and you can only buy it when they come in, not before. It's a little vague, but Rick and I both may be able to buy a tank even though we are in the same family. The cost will be $30 and $9 to fill each tank.....if they had tanks.

This is what happens when there is no free market. The supplier calls the shots, does not need to provide good customer service and has no incentive to provide products or services in a timely fashion. The customer has no options to go to another supplier. We are at the mercy of the monopoly, controlled by the socialist government.

In the US, we take it for granted that we can get whatever we want when we want it.  We know that companies that don't cater to us will fail as we will go to a competitor....or order it from Amazon and have it within 24 hours.

We have this brand new grill and no propane. Its like having a cigarette with no lighter.  Three weeks....we wait for propane. 

In the meantime, we find this great BBQ place (it's really someone's back yard) that smokes and BBQ's ribs and turkey legs on Saturdays and Sundays only. "Holy Smokes" is minutes from our house.  So we will have BBQ this weekend in spite of the socialists.