A non-trivial amount of folks have died from the pandemic or have some degree of long covid as well. Meanwhile, large conglomerates use the supply chain scares

A non-trivial amount of folks have died from the pandemic or have some degree of long covid as well. Meanwhile, large conglomerates use the supply chain scares to arbitrarily raise prices causing real inflation. At some point, the BS required to do an entry-level / retail job isn't worth it (min wage doesn't pay enough these days), or you're simply incapable of doing what you could before.