I appreciate the feedback, but I think it's unhelpful to dismiss what I said as "lazy". I have an economics background and am certainly not a "blame corporations" reactionary.
Companies are smart. When news gets spread far and wide about a shortage of eggs or other products due to disease or wars or "supply chain issues", they leap to take advantage of this consumer consciousness by increasing their prices, knowing the consumer will blame the larger macro factor and not the company. This has been well-documented, even in cases where the supply chain issues didn't actually impact the company that raised prices.
The best way to understand what's happening is via corporate earnings calls. They're upfront with their strategy when talking to investors.
Sure, but firms reacting normally to consumer price inelasticity during supply shocks is not exactly noteworthy. The noteworthy thing here is that there are supply shocks on so many different fronts at once.
I don't deny that corporations will try to make a buck taking advantage of favorable price-over-volume plays when they can, but I think it's crazy that people think during a global energy and fertilizer shortage Walmart just decided to throw out all of their low-price volume corporate strategy just to screw customers over egg prices.
I'd expect decent firms to not try to gouge customers who are already hurting at the time when they most are, but maybe "normal" means "sociopathic" in the context of amoral unrestricted capitalism
Companies are smart. When news gets spread far and wide about a shortage of eggs or other products due to disease or wars or "supply chain issues", they leap to take advantage of this consumer consciousness by increasing their prices, knowing the consumer will blame the larger macro factor and not the company. This has been well-documented, even in cases where the supply chain issues didn't actually impact the company that raised prices.
The best way to understand what's happening is via corporate earnings calls. They're upfront with their strategy when talking to investors.
For more info I'd recommend listening to this episode: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-09/corporate...