Inflation Pass Through Tracker

Use This Skill When

• The user wants to know which businesses can pass inflation on.
• The task is to separate real pricing power from fragile price increases.
• The analysis needs to compare volume resilience, mix, and margin under inflation.

Required Inputs

• target: company, peer set, or subsector
• input cost context: commodities, freight, labor, packaging, rent, or another inflation source
• pricing evidence: list-price moves, realized pricing, promo intensity, mix shifts
• demand evidence: volume, traffic, units, churn, or elasticity clues
• time horizon: recent quarter, next 2 to 4 quarters, or inflation cycle
• If exact price-volume bridges are missing, state that the pass-through assessment is directional.

Workflow

1. Define the inflation source and who bears it first.
2. Review the company's pricing actions and timing.
3. Assess demand elasticity and evidence of volume or traffic pressure.
4. Compare realized margin outcomes with pricing claims.
5. Classify pass-through quality: strong, partial, fragile, or failing.
6. Conclude on which names or categories best absorb inflation.

Output Requirements

• Focus on realized pass-through, not only management claims.
• Separate price, mix, and volume.
• State whether pricing is sticky, promotional, or likely to reverse.
• End with which metrics prove pass-through is working or not.

Output Template

Quality Checks

• Confirm price and volume are discussed separately.
• Check that realized margins are used when available.
• Verify pass-through is judged against customer response, not just pricing announcements.
• Make sure reversal risk is considered.

Guardrails

• Do not equate price increases with successful pass-through.
• Do not ignore promo intensity or trade-down behavior.
• Do not assume all staples names have equal pricing power.
• Do not fabricate elasticity math.

Example Prompts

• Which staples companies are passing inflation through most effectively?
• Assess pass-through quality for this food company using price, mix, and volume.
• Compare inflation absorption versus pass-through across these consumer names.