> This feels to me like a case where the market should sort it out - I would think there would be enough competition in the egg industry that it should be diffi

> This feels to me like a case where the market should sort it out - I would think there would be enough competition in the egg industry that it should be difficult to gouge. Nope. Always Late Inventory(tm) means that no upstream supplier has any excess capacity. So, even if you wanted to drop prices a bit and gain some customers, you can't. Your upstream supplier can't give you 10% more eggs because they are capacity constrained as well. Lather, rinse, repeat at every level.