This investigation should be over quickly. Whereas at the beginning of Covid, it was cheaper to shop at Kroger than the local grocery co-op and the fresh thyme, both are now cheaper than Kroger by ~$50/week for a family of 3. The same carton of eggs at fresh thyme is half the price of Kroger. Make it make sense!!!
It’s my understanding that grocers themselves tend to operate is miserably thin margins, especially when they don’t have the kind of leverage of large, national chains. I know someone whose family operated a community grocery and they were actually relieved when the building caught fire. They didn’t depend on the income, it was just something they took over to serve the community, and it ended up feeling like an anchor around their neck. Seems likely that this is largely an issue that lies with the food producers.
My father says the same thing about the slim margin of oil companies. That being said, when that slim margin is in the billions and millions of people suffer for it, there's room for inquiry.
Idk. I live in a food desert, I’ve thought about trying to scrape up the capital to start a grocery bus to serve my area, but I’m pretty worried about whether I’d be able to pay my bills if I made it my full time job. I’ve pretty consistently heard that grocery is a sector that operates on thin margins, and I wonder if the notable disappearance of small neighborhood grocers over the course of my lifetime isn’t evidence to that end.
I don’t think most people are specifically targeting retailers, who make very little percent per item, as you said. But manufacturers were raising prices before the pandemic, during it, and now…
On Thursday, during a virtual public meeting hosted by the FTC and the Department of Justice, Khan said the probe would “shed light” on why prices and profits at grocery chains “remain so high even as costs appear to have come down.”
"We want to make sure that major businesses are not exploiting their power to inflate prices for American families at the grocery store,” she said.
Khan plans to formally ask the FTC to launch an inquiry, but the process will only proceed if the commission votes in favor of it. Should the inquiry gain approval, the agency would require big grocery chain operators to provide information on their sales, costs, and profits for commonly purchased items.
This why the GOP want to have her removed and why billionaires were asking Harris to have her removed. We need vote and make damn sure she stays in power and FTC gets teeth to fight against all the greed.
It’s amazing how many people don’t understand this. Prices go up for a long time and almost never come down after because that would lead to losses and a stock dive. But the narrative is that it’s greed. It’s not bloody greed, it’s Capitalism’s process. Want that to change, stop putting money in the stock market.
I’d love to, but I have 2 locked-in RRSPs that can only be invested in the stock market (from former jobs). It pisses me off to no end that I have exactly zero control over them … and have just (in the past 2 years) gained what I lost in the 2008 crash.
Fuck Wall St and fuck jobs that force me into the stock market.
worked for a food distrobutor during covid and they had a meeting about jacking up prices on covid supplies and all other items. At the time I said the covid supplies was a big issue. Nope, full steam ahead. I even did a whistlr blower complaint to the FTC with all the documents. Nothing ever came of it.
My work magically got a supply of N95 masks early in Covid. It was unexpected, so we didn’t have a plan or a system for them. Didn’t think to have a limit or anything.
A crew from Albert Lee bought every single one, took them back to their store, and sold them at 100% markup.
I was at the grocery store yesterday. A single shrinkflation Hershey’s bar was $2.49. Some prices have doubled in 1-5 years… Are you fucking kidding me!?
Ain’t that the truth. If it were a $3 chocolate bar made by a chocolatier in a real shop with a decent amount of cocoa in it that might be worth it. But it’s really disappointing mass produced slightly vomit-tasting brown wax, it’s disgusting and barely worth $1.
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