Let me give you a hint...SBUX raising their prices partially to cover higher costs but 100% of their higher prices being blamed on inflation so they can pad their pockets. I bet all the major corporations in the consumer goods sector did the exact same thing... Starbucks is raising prices after reporting a 31% increase in profits. The company’s revenue increased by almost 20% to over $8,000,000,000. Their CEO’s pay increased by almost 40% last year to more than $20,000,000.
I thought the exact same thing when inflation talk started. How much is it real, and how much is make believe? Are we really going to see prices go back to normal once the supply chain stabilizes? Always bet on greed.
You can look at this question in a different way. Remember the shrinkflation thread I posted? Not many folks added their own examples, but the one I recall specifically was about the Reese's PB cup mini bag. It used to be $10 for 40 oz of product, now it is $10 for ~ 37 oz. of product. When the supply chain problem goes away and the cost of manufacture goes back to pre-pandemic levels, will Reese's increase the bag back to 40 oz. for the same price? The answer is a resounding NO. So the profit grab continues.
It's not just Trump...ALL the CEO's of the food conglomerates have the same issue. You won't see the Twinkie™ getting larger in size like the cock of the CEO as they reap the extra profits from said extra Twinkie™ profits because of said shrinkflation.
Although shrinkflation has been around since the 1950s... Today, corporate America is using it for bigger profits while downsizing their production lines (bigger profits). While ‘shrinkflation’ gets measured, ‘skimpflation’ does not. Shrinking itself is captured in official inflation data, but another sneaky force that costs consumers is getting missed in the statistics. Companies sometimes use cheaper materials to save on costs in a practice some call “skimpflation.” That is much harder for the government to measure. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/01/business/economy/shrinkflation-groceries.html wrbtrader
On an absolute level, yes, it is horrible and has been known. But it is gross when the simple peoples notice it, and cannot effect a change in the practice. We are powerless. Just watch "The Informant!" with Matt Damon. That's a bit of it.
The past summer when I was in the States... I saw a mom with her kid in the Target food section. She opened up two bags of chips and then poured the contents of one bag into the other...she then put the empty bag back on the shelf. Next, I saw her in the self-checkout section scanning her full bag of chips with her other groceries. wrbtrader