It’s a different business but hopefully will give some insight from a retailers perspective.
I had someone posted that we had price-gouged him on a pair of tyres. Our sale price was the manufacturers recommended retail price, at which we made 25% profit margin. He purchased his tires as a walk-in customer at 7.30pm - we used to stay open until 9pm to accommodate bike riders working all day. In addition we fitted the tyres for him. Most shops close at 6pm. For us to stay open cost us £80 per hour. So staying open that night cost us £240. I checked the toll records and that night we made 2 sales - the tyres and one cup of coffee. Total sales of £82.50 from which we made a gross profit of £21.50. As a result we lost £218.50. In his negative Google review he suggested that we should have price matched an online discounter. Had we matched their price we would have made 50p from the tyres! And the online guys don’t offer to fit them for free, or give him the convenience of picking him up his tyres in time for him to ride to work the following morning.
As you can imagine the words ‘price gouging’ is a very emotive one for me. So all I would say is don’t always jump to the conclusion that the retailer is always out to gouge you. There’s always the option of not buying from anyone you think is gouging. But sometimes perhaps they’re just trying to make enough to pay their bills and feed their kids.