I think a lot of this is a combination of "because everyone else is doing it" and "because we can". I've seen a huge price increase in branded and prepared foo

I think a lot of this is a combination of "because everyone else is doing it" and "because we can". I've seen a huge price increase in branded and prepared food products. Staples like fruit, veggies, eggs, etc. has gone up in price but much less than the branded. I also think a lot of companies are running near capacity. Labor market is tight and the supply chain is still reeling from Covid. So there's not really an opportunity to lower/maintain prices to get market share.