Toothpaste

According to the Daily Hampshire Gazette, three local Amherst businesses had counterfeit, possibly dangerous, toothpaste on their shelves.

But we don't get to know which three businesses. The Health department is worried that revealing that information might hurt those local businesses.

Well, duh! That's how a free market is supposed to work. If you screw up, you get punished by the market.

Yes, it may not be the local business' fault. But it's their responsibility to make sure that the products they sell are safe. If they sell an unsafe product unwittingly because their distributor defrauded them, and they're financially damaged as a result, then they should be able to sue their distributor for fraud.

If there's no punishment for screwing up, then businesses have no motivation to do better.

Update, 11 July: Sanity reigns, and the names of the stores are released (Amherst MiniMart on College Street and Amherst Grocery on Main Street).