They still need to buy food, but when the price of something goes up too fast they look for cheaper alternatives to what they normally buy or just stop buying certain things entirely. It's rare the cost for the cost of everything to spike all at the same time. It's happened before though when fuel prices were really high, it happened during the early days of the covid pandemic, and it's happening now with inflation being the excuse.

When the cost of everything goes up like it has now people actually do change their habits and shop at different stores looking for better prices (walmart, aldi, costco) when they have the option.

"More than 8 in 10 Americans changed how they buy groceries last year. They hunted for sales, switched to cheaper brands and stopped buying goods they once considered essential." (https://fooddrinklife.com/inflation-grocery-shopping/)

See also: https://www.savings.com/insights/80-percent-us-adults-cut-ba...