All these catchy new names to replace just saying "capitalism" are really carrying a lot of water to make this seem like some unintended fluke and not just the literal cornerstones of capitalism.
The people who own the means of production are charging the maximum amount they can get away with for the things they produce.
And they're using the inelastic aspect of the fact people need things like "food" and "shelter" to charge more for things that people would die without.
Buy no it's a completely new phenomenonwell have to spend a long time coming up with a solution for, deffinitly isn't centuries of books written on exactly why this happens and what would stop it.
Also these smaller chains are doing everything they can to remove that modifier of "it's ok to steal from corporations" by doing the exact same price gouging as the big guys.
Literally for decades small business have been complaining they can't compete with the prices of the big corporations because of economy of scale.
But then the corporations all doubled their prices from sheer greed, giving the small stores a chance to undercut them with fair prices and reclaim that market share while also benefitting the whole community and not effe tovely holding their food ransom.
Or they could also double all their prices and attempt to do the exact same thing as Walmart because it seems like they can get away with it.