Rather than eat those costs, many companies are passing them on to customers in the form of higher prices — dubbed surcharges. All the people who are out of work won’t pay the higher prices and those who still have jobs may pay those higher prices once and then decide they’re not getting their money’s worth after their first visit — so they won’t return. It is hard to see how many people — after trying this once — would keep paying that higher price. Any price increases will be met with extraordinary resistance from hard-pressed consumers.”Those surcharges do not worry Zandi. As he said, “Spot price increases for various products and services...won’t amount to a broad-based increase in inflation.

Source: Forbes May 23, 2020 15:16 UTC