There's also the matter that people treat econ 101 as facts but the truth of the matter is economics is really fuzzy and there are no hard rules and there are always (ALWAYS) exceptions. Even what I said can happen or can not. I was just pointing out that it ,,can'' happen. It's all very statistical. But you may notice that the real world very much does not follow anywhere near the econ 101 models. It's like doing physics where everything is a spherical cow. Truth of the matter is that if we actually understood economics we wouldn't run into situations like this. It isn't like economies benefit from major downturns and inflation. It'd be like knowingly shooting yourself in the foot. Over and over again.
[0] https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/033115/how-does-law...
As to your first: if people expect prices to increase tomorrow, they don't save today; they spend today, to lock in value prior to inflation. And even if people actually did as you claim and saved funds today despite their expectations of higher prices tomorrow, guess what: seller's can't eat expectations. They need actual sales. And in your scenario, the people aren't buying.
