As a Buyer, price is always a calculation in the demand....
What did you sell it for last year, what will they pay for it this year...if your costs go up and demand was healthy prior to such, then you calculate this in to your purchase for this year's demand and buy less, but sell something more of another item that you misjudged demand and it is higher than you expected.
Also, if the previous years demand for the product was so great, and the price of the product this year was going to have to retail for $10 bucks more than last year for the same product because your cost of goods went up or taxes or duties went up or there was a shortage in one of the materials in the product or freight costs went up drastically because of gasoline prices rising or any number of reasons the same product costs more this year than last year.....instead of taking the buying less of that product because the demand will be reduced with the retail at $10 bucks more, OR YOU CAN TAKE THE APPROACH to buy the hell out of it, double what you bought last year and promote it barely above margin on it's sale price and get your return on investment and profits through mass selling it, at the lower margin.
Basically Dive, no one is boxed in...even if prices rise on one of your products.
If it rises on all of your products, then it rises on all of your competitor's products as well, so if it had a demand before, it will still have a demand afterwards...
I went through a leather crisis once, back in the 80's...when leather couches and leather chairs made their way back in to fashion and most every home in America....i bought women's shoes, the prices of all of our shoes for women went from about 29 bucks on average to $39 bucks on average from one season to the next.....we, the business, prepared for the worst.....there was no way women would pay 30% more for their footwear from one season to the next....this was super inflation....no way would it be accepted, so we bought low...we still would meet sales plan because each shoe would be selling for a higher price so this actually kept our salesplan flat....but with less items actually being sold.
Talk about being caught with our pants down....the consumer couldn't give a hoot about the 30% hike and we ran short on inventory and had to scrample to place more purchases to fill the demand.
Demand is a strange thing....those that can read it, will be your success stories in business, because they will have the right amount of supply bought to serve the demand appropriately and profitably.
Demand comes first then supply or projected demand, then supply.
I AM NOT SAYING supply is not important, it is very important, but the demand is what drives the proper supply....for any business....we projected our salesplan, down to the item, translating such in to a dollar figure of what was needed in inventory, in the supply.
Care