I wasn't arguing the merits of price gouging, rather that as opposed to what CPI figures may suggest, the poorest have been hit much harder, by much higher infl

I wasn't arguing the merits of price gouging, rather that as opposed to what CPI figures may suggest, the poorest have been hit much harder, by much higher inflation than those better off. Seeing as we're now on the topic. Demand may be high where you are but that certainly doesn't hold true in the UK. The statistics show clearly that people are buying less[0] and getting less for it. Retail volume is down 3.1% on 2022 across the board, there's literally a chart titled "Divergence between retail sales volumes and values"[1] showing how severely people are being squeezed. Figure 4[2] breaks out the same data for food retail specifically. While certain demographics have been able to somewhat keep up with rising prices, the reality is that some food banks are having to distribute 50% more than they did pre-pandemic[3]. Real disposable income is already well below 2020 levels and expected to erase a decade of "growth" as it nosedives towards that of 2013[4]. [0] https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/retailindustry/bulletins/retailsales/march2023 https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/retailindust... [1] https://www.ons.gov.uk/chartimage?uri=/businessindustryandtrade/retailindustry/bulletins/retailsales/march2023/33fb5476 https://www.ons.gov.uk/chartimage?uri=/businessindustryandtr... [2] https://www.ons.gov.uk/chartimage?uri=/businessindustryandtrade/retailindustry/bulletins/retailsales/march2023/8dc89c35 https://www.ons.gov.uk/chartimage?uri=/businessindustryandtr... [3] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/feb/19/record-number-of-uk-households- https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/feb/19/record-numbe... depending-on-food-banks [4] https://obr.uk/docs/dlm_uploads/CCS0822661240-002_SECURE_OBR_EFO_November_2022_WEB_ACCESSIBLE.pdf https://obr.uk/docs/dlm_uploads/CCS0822661240-002_SECURE_OBR.... page 18 (page 22 of the pdf).