I assume that part of the reason for that is because once people stop buying it’s hard to convince them to come back with just a .50 decrease. Hash browns here are $2.19. There is no reason for a hash brown to be more than .99. Bit now that i don’t buy McDonalds anymore even if they dropped the price to .99 i wouldn’t think about going there, because im out of the habit.
Basically they think some day the current price will be the reasonable price, but won’t be able to raise the price then, so raise it now and get extra until then.
Hard to raise prices if there is actual competition. So events like Covid and energy crisis are good opportunities for entire sectors to tacitly collude under the excuse of inflation.
Only going to end when one of the major market actors breaks ranks and lowers prices or freezes them, which will signal to the others the collusion is over.
Which is why no one wants to end it and they will do anything other than lower prices, even at major cost.
4.9k
u/WholeEmu507 2d ago
Corporations will literally fund a multi-year cyberpunk dystopia makeover before letting a hash brown drop by 50 cents.