I've had a vague suspicion that after 2021 companies/stores/landlords when faced with fewer customers are raising prices. This is counterintuitive since raisin

I've had a vague suspicion that after 2021 companies/stores/landlords when faced with fewer customers are raising prices. This is counterintuitive since raising prices should drive away even more customers and low profits further. But it seems to be driven by shareholder value; if you can't make your numbers you fire people or raise prices to meet your numbers. If workers are already scarce then all you can do is raise prices. This seems destined to backfire, but for now it seems markets are not working the way they used to and the owners are getting away with it. In real estate in particular there are long lag times so it may take a while for competition to assert itself. I can't point to any data to support this conjecture (except some prices on Amazon have doubled, like for shelf stable milk), but it appears to me there is much less competition (and more silent collusion?) than there used to be. Maybe these companies are desperate and raising prices is their final attempt to save their themselves?