> That across most companies across all the states in the country they've all decided to be evil and greedy together...and in the last few years in particular t

> That across most companies across all the states in the country they've all decided to be evil and greedy together...and in the last few years in particular they've all decided together, in a grand conspiracy, to unanimously raise prices at the same time Not necessarily accurate - the current situation (high prices) could be a result of seeing one company do it successfully, without blowback (initially), and copying it. I'm not clear why it would require explicit co-operation. Additionally, companies can change prices within a single quarter based on their observation of the market. > wouldn't the best way for a company to make money in this world of greedy corporations be to just keep lower prices, which would result in stealing all of the business from the companies that raised prices, and thereby making more money? Only under the rational economic model of consumers, where people change their buying habits due to price increases. But store loyalty/convenience/location/familiarity is sticky, and there were few other options out there. The stores that cut prices would face lower margins as well, so they would have to do more work for similar-ish profit, which increases wage cost. Either way, as you said, this is insanely politicized and I'm pretty sure any one person's interpretation reflects more about their own biases than any explanatory power of the price increase phenomenon.