“...but they can’t remove increased prices at the store shelves.”
Actually, they can and they do. The name for it escapes me, but the methodology goes as follows: if the price of (ex) beef goes up 1%, it’s assumed the consumer put the beef back and purchased the chicken, which rose 0.25%.
Voila! Inflation under control.
But then the stores would have to lower the price of the beef to move it before it spoils and just to try and recoup some of their expenses.
Some of the cost increase is supply and demand but a majority of all increases is transportation cost.
Uh, no . . . that’s not how it works. Unless all you read are blogs that try to sell you gold.