Scalpers truly are the worst. They artificially drive up the price and scarcity of products that would otherwise be readily available at list price, and provide no added value whatsoever. Scalping was especially bad last year when folks were self-quarantining, had a lot of time on their hands, had stimulus checks ready to spend, and supply chains were disrupted causing actual scarcity for things like Nintendo Switches, Playstations, graphics cards, laptops, headsets, etc., anything that had an increased demand during COVID lockdown. I had to beat them at their own game by using one of their bots just to get my gf a Switch for her birthday.
Online retailers can certainly take steps to curb the practice of scalping, but I'm not sure what brick and mortar stores that except cash payment can do.