WASHINGTON—Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris is set to announce her plan to ban corporate price-gouging at the grocery store. Her boss Joe Biden’s Federal Trade Commission is already working on it too. The agency’s new Strike Force on Unfair and Illegal Pricing is tackling the issue.
For several months on the campaign trail, Vice President Harris has promised that if elected president, she would bring down grocery prices, but hasn’t said how. The Hill reports that on August 16, Harris will get specific in a campaign address in the swing state of North Carolina.
She needs to. It’s literally a pocketbook problem on every shopper’s trip to the supermarket.
The rise in grocery prices was greater than general inflation from the start of the Biden administration until this year. Price hikes this year are zero, at least measured by the Consumer Price Index, and some grocery prices, such as for cereal, pasta, and potatoes, have actually declined, says FTC Chair Lina Khan.
But the overall increases—double-digit percentage hikes in the last three years combined–leave consumers hurting at the supermarket and provide campaign fodder for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. The convicted construction mogul claims inflation was low under his regime.
Trump doesn’t specifically address grocery price hikes, or why they occurred, especially during the coronavirus pandemic, which he did little to combat. His Agriculture Department, meeting with the big meatpackers’ lobbyists, viewed the pandemic as a public relations rather than an emergency health problem.
Harris blames the corporate class and its pursuit of profits overall, even at the cost of consumers’ wallets and farmers’ income. If elected, she’ll order the Federal Trade Commission to work with state Attorneys General to pursue price-gougers of all sorts, including grocery chains and big agribusiness firms which control the food supply.
That’s what the FTC is already starting on, says agency Chair Lina Khan.
“Too often, people feel like too much of their paycheck is going towards covering the basics, like meat or bread or eggs,” Khan said in opening the all-day strike force session on August 1.
“We want to make sure major businesses are not exploiting their power to inflate prices for American families at the grocery store. We’ll continue using all of our tools to expose and crack down on any underhanded tactics companies may use to raise prices on the basic things Americans need the most.”
Harris wants the agency to concentrate on halting soaring meat prices, since only a few big companies, like Tyson Foods, rule beef, chicken, turkey, and pork production. She’ll also have the FTC combat mega-mergers and acquisitions which limit competition for consumers’ dollars. FTC’s done that too.
In February, the FTC formally opposed the mega-merger of two of the nation’s largest grocery chains, Kroger and Albertson’s, to cheers from the National Consumers League and from the United Food and Commercial Workers, whose members include grocery workers, meat-packing workers, and poultry “factory farm” workers.
FTC has also gone to court to block the $24.6 billion deal, which the agency says reduces competition for consumers and jobs for workers. Federal court hearings on that suit will begin August 26 in Portland, Ore. Now it’s convened the strike force to pursue the wider issue.
“The FTC’s decision reflects clear concerns over the impact such a megamerger could have on workers, food prices, and millions of customers,” UFCW President Marc Perrone said when the agency first announced it opposed the merger.
“The UFCW stands–and will continue to stand–in opposition to any merger that would negatively impact our hundreds of thousands of hard-working members who work at Kroger and Albertsons.”
“Grocery prices skyrocketed during the pandemic due in large part to the higher costs and supply chain disruptions, but we also know that in the years since costs have fallen and supply chains have improved,” Khan explained. “But many items though are still too costly and many large grocery chains are still raking in enormous profits.
“The FTC is determined to understand why. We want to make sure the major businesses are not exploiting their power to inflate prices for American families at the grocery store” and “crackdown on any underhanded tactics that companies may be using to raise prices on the basic things that Americans need the most” and “to stop any corporate lawbreaking that inflates costs” for U.S. families, Khan elaborated.
The Consumers League, a year before, applauded the FTC’s activism against price-gougers. When it comes to grocery monopolies, it advocates going even further—by actively bolstering competition.
“This administration is taking the gloves off and putting corporate wrongdoers on notice that anti-consumer behavior will not go unchallenged,” Consumers League Executive Director Sally Greenberg said then. “Businesses are leveraging their market dominance to squeeze every penny they can from hard-working families. We are thankful to have allies in the White House who are channeling consumers’ frustration into action.”
And the league “supports cooperation between family farmers and consumers, who are natural allies…to develop alternatives to increasing concentration and industry alliances in food processing, production, merchandising, distributing, and retailing,” its statement on the issue says.
“Concentration spells fewer markets for farmers and numerous foreclosures of efficient family farms. Reduced competition means higher prices for consumers.”
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