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Comment by superkuh | Hacker News Reader

It's not UK, but I get the feeling this isn't so much inflation as opportunistic behavior. See grocery corporation CEOs bragging about price gouging under the cover of "inflation" during investor calls, https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/17/united-states-vs-vons/#pr...

>As Kroger CEO told his shareholders: "a little bit of inflation is always good in our business" because it lets him raise prices and "customers don’t overly react."

Over 50% of the rise in prices for groceries during the pandemic are from corporate profits. Raises in input costs (38%) and labor (7%) made up most of the rest. When the price raise is 50% increased profit during a time where a large fraction cannot afford enough to eat this is price gouging. It is extremely clear. https://www.salon.com/2022/10/19/katie-porter-pulls-out-char... https://porter.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID...

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>It's not UK, but I get the feeling this isn't so much inflation as opportunistic behavior

It's not "opportunistic behavior", it's basic market dynamics when supply outstrips demand. Here's a simplistic model: if the world oil supply was halved because all the oil wells in the middle east blew up, then any price increases will be pure profit for every other oil producer. It tempting to say that oil producers shouldn't raise their prices because their costs haven't increased, but not increasing prices lead to other problems. If oil supply was halved and demand remained the same, then there's going to be oil shortages. We tried that in the 70s (eg. oil price caps) and that led to massive lines at the pump. Today we have floating oil prices and gas lines basically never happen, short of in natural disasters.

This is precisely why I have cut back to only staple ingredients. I refuse to give them the premiums they've artificially put on top of actual inflation because there are is so little competition in the market. I've learned to cook a lot better as well. I just don't participate any more in name brands/movies/etc I wait on the cheap version of stuff now and find that I'm not really missing out on anything.

The problem is that they get you in the long run when inflation erodes away the money you would have saved. There needs to be some sort of stable way of transferring that value into a medium that can retain it. I don't think anything exists that can satisfy this requirement. Everything i've seen (Bitcoin, gold, etc.) has not cut the mustard.

Inflation is prices rising and people willing to pay them. It isn't gouging for if Mars wants to raise the price of a snickers 50 cents when their costs only rise 25 cents. That is them adjusting to the market. If money wasn't sloshing around people would go. I don't need a 50 cent more snickers bar or I will by a cheaper substitute good (pork instead of steak) and prices wouldn't rise as much. But the consumer is willing to pay more hence the price goes up.

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