>>509495520
That's the importance of pickling, salting, preserving, jarring, canning, sealing, freezing, etc. Stuff won't go bad for decades, and you always rotate out the older stuff, anyway. More perishable stuff gets appropriately portioned out. Also...
Sales are temporary.
Emergencies/disasters happen.
Bulk purchasing is cheaper.

A lot of reasons to have some sort of larder, and I would think after COVID most people would've started to prepare for the unexpected. Our family was one that didn't go without for most most things, and didn't get fucked by price-gougers.