A lot of companies have seen margin expansion since the pandemic, supply/demand has been way out of balance and their input costs have forced price increases an

A lot of companies have seen margin expansion since the pandemic, supply/demand has been way out of balance and their input costs have forced price increases anyway. Using these retailers as examples and quoting profits in absolute terms is dishonest though, they were massive benefactors of policy recently and grew in absolute terms, with percent margins being much more mixed. Lockdowns drove business to them by shutting down competitors, easy monetary policy favors them, and they are the ecommerce winners. There are lots of B&M and other consumer companies that have been crushed recently, Kohl's being one easy example. It's very likely we'll see their margins drop over the next year. Predicting inflation is just about impossible, but prices are likely to keep going up, and future price hikes won't be into the sort of consumer spending strength that was the case last year.