Grocery stores know that when people are struggling to afford to eat, they try to save some money by going for the cheaper brands, which are typically owned by the store. Since the store control all the prices, they are able to jack up the price of everything, making their customers go “wow, food is expensive, better try to bargain hunt more”, and suddenly you’re not buying the competitor bread, now you’re buying Western Family / No Name, and they profit both from the price hikes AND because they grow their market share on first-party goods.
It’s fucked up that they are allowed to both make AND sell the same products on the same shelves as their competitor’s goods, but that’s because our antitrust sucks.
There is NO downside for the store when they make you starve, you still gotta eat to live so you’ll pay anything, and these things are all owned by the same handful of megacorps.
Grocery stores know that when people are struggling to afford to eat, they try to save some money by going for the cheaper brands, which are typically owned by the store. Since the store control all the prices, they are able to jack up the price of everything, making their customers go “wow, food is expensive, better try to bargain hunt more”, and suddenly you’re not buying the competitor bread, now you’re buying Western Family / No Name, and they profit both from the price hikes AND because they grow their market share on first-party goods.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giffen_good
It’s fucked up that they are allowed to both make AND sell the same products on the same shelves as their competitor’s goods, but that’s because our antitrust sucks.
There is NO downside for the store when they make you starve, you still gotta eat to live so you’ll pay anything, and these things are all owned by the same handful of megacorps.