you're exactly right that the covid disruption might have been merely a temporary inflation as people wanted to increase their home inventory or toilet paper and such, and then return their home inventories to normal levels after the pandemic.
but there are a few things that have changed longer term.
first, the federal government threw a ton of money into the economy, fairly haphazardly, to avoid a collapse of the economy. in retrospect, this was somewhat overdone (government is usually far short and late when trying to stimulate the economy) as "work from home" as far more successful than anyone predicted. at least some of this money worked its way to the lower and middle classes, putting them in a better position to afford higher food prices.
second, thanks to the above and other factors, we've had incredibly low unemployment numbers for the longer period in at least half a century. again, this means the lower and middle classes are in a better position to afford higher prices.
third, takeout services such as uber eats are making restaurants more convenient to more people. not that the poor are happily paying even more for an convenient but usually unnecessary service, but more of the better-off customers are likely "eating out in" more often because of this.
fourth, real estate prices have been on a tear, so homeowners are able to tap into this with home equity loans and have more available to spend. doesn't help renters, of course, in fact it hurts them once their rent goes up; but on the whole it helps increase demand for restaurants.
all of which means that demand is higher longer term than before covid. with their customer base a little better off, the fast food industry shifted to grab a piece of the pie. hence, higher prices. fewer customers, but not enough to offset the higher profit margin.
this is all "inflation" but it's for more complicated reasons than simply "we're running low on supply". i have mixed feelings about the term "greedflation". i think it does get at what the nature of the inflation we're seeing, but "greed" is a constant. businesses are *always* looking to adjust prices to increase profits. the question is why is this working now when it didn't work pre-covid? and i think the above points help explain why. in short, the consumer is now better off than it was before.
now, of course, the problem with inflation is that it doesn't affect everyone the same, in the sense that not everyone's wage increased to cover the extra costs. but in the aggregate, with fewer people unemployed and more, particularly at the low end, making somewhat higher wages with minimum wages going up in some areas and nearby wages adjusting upward as well, as a whole, the fast food consumer base is better able to afford the higher prices.
those who were already employed probably aren't seeing any wage increases, or at least aren't beating inflation, and they are understandably not happy with the price increases. but there are apparently enough other consumers better off for this to be a successful pricing policy for the fast-food industry.
people forget the modest inflation is actually an entirely normal part of a decently strong economy. it's not the fun part, but it happens, nearly always, in fact. so my take in this case is that it's actually *evidence* of a decently strong economy. in know that's not a great political selling point, but from a economist's point of view, i think it makes sense.
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