Sam's Club and Costco Limiting Rice Purchases

Two big warehouse chains are restricting rice sales per customer to limit hoarding of the precious commodity. The recent sharp increase in rice futures has created significant challenges for a large portion of the world that relies on rice as a diet staple. Governments around the world have begun banning rice exports in a desperate attempt to ensure that enough supplies remain within their borders. One of the most useful things I ever learned in an economics class is that price caps and trade restrictions create shortages and exacerbate an already difficult situation. Jimmy Carter demonstrated this quite effectively in the 70's (let's hope he does better with solving the Middle East peace crisis.) At any rate, the price of rice continues to surge and threatens to cause panic in parts of the world where people could possibly starve without it. However, the US is not part of that world. Thankfully, if Sam's Club runs out of rice, it may cause problems for Asian-themed restaurants, but nobody in America is going to starve. Our grocery stores are stocked with a dizzying array of substitutes. While it is certainly true that food prices are increasing across the board, we have yet to reach a state where we need to ration our staples. So I find this move by Sam's Club and Costco to be rather bizarre and somewhat irresponsible as it could create a panic where one need not exist.