@mcfate I will say, as someone who has worked grocery retail for almost two decades and disappointed his whole family, the margin aren't so razor thin as they would like all to believe. Many margins with shelf stable products are more like 50-70%. Major suppliers also do kick-backs on bulk buys that the store level won't see. Where we lose money is in fresh meats, produce and loss leaders. That said, price gouging is happening on all levels, from suppliers to stores and logistics costs.
@mcfate another big one is anything in-house, like house brands or anything from a company's in house farming/fishing (like my company owns an entire fishing fleet) when we buy from the fleet, we're buying from ourselves at whatever price the head office decides to set it at. So they can entirely be inflating costs artificially to maximize profits and we wouldn't be able to prove it because our seafood or fresh meats invoices are razor thin on margins.