FTC head should be putting a halt on the Kroger+Albertsons merger if he’s really serious.
She
But you are correct. My state is suing to prevent that since that would make them a huge percentage of the market and create many areas with no competition.
But didn’t you hear? Less competition makes prices go down. The head of Kroger said so!!!
How they have gotten around it before is to promise they will keep prices down and then show how things will be much cheaper for them so they can do it. Unsurprisingly they all fail on their promises shortly after but they have already merged by that point and have little fear of being broken up.
Just remember, eggs were 12 bucks a dozen until the fed threatened a RICO investigation.
Hopefully the same happens to the rest of our groceries.
Never saw it get $12 crazy, but at one point farmers had to kill off 100 million chickens because of bird flu. That’s nearly 1 chicken for every man, woman and child in the US.
Imagine the disposal cost, let alone the costs for sterilizing monstrous chicken warehouses. Then factor in the costs of keeping operations going while they repopulated.
However, there was something I read and can’t remember, about the prices staying jacked beyond what was to be expected.
at one point farmers had to kill off 100 million chickens because of bird flu. That’s nearly 1 chicken for every man, woman and child in the US.
Didn’t seem to impact egg production all that much: https://www.statista.com/statistics/196094/us-total-egg-production-since-2001/
My dad worked for a private company that was a government contractor for almost 30 years before they were bought out by some international corporation.
I asked my dad if they used to have years where they didn’t turn a profit. “Oh absolutely, but we made up for it the next year, or they had money set aside, or…”
None of that happens anymore. Those chickens, I guarantee, caught those diseases because of the practices put in place by the 4 or 5 companies that basically produce all of the poultry for this country. They made poor business decisions, they chose to pinch pennies and not put money aside for unexpected emergencies, they continued to pay out dividends and issue stock buy backs instead of creating an emergency fund like they tell us poors we need to do.
So no, I don’t care to imagine any of their costs, because if they were a legitimate business, they would have contingency plans in place beyond “jack the prices up as high as they’ll go and keep em there until it starts to hurt our wallets enough.” They would take the hit for fucking once instead of passing the cost along to those who can least bare it so they can maintain their lifestyle built on greed and stolen wages.
The egg-laying chickens were not as affected from everything I heard.
Was it just meat birds?
Can’t picture how that worked, but I know nothing about poultry farming. Person below posted a link saying the same, can’t see the data I hoped to.
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Crime happens
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People notice the crime happening
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Journalists report on the crime
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Documentarians spend thousands of hours collecting data to illustrate the size and scope of the crime
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A national outcry erupts
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Politicians finally consider this worth their attention
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“We’re going to look into it.”
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Economic collapse occurs because of all the crime
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Giant bailouts for all the criminals
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“Now is not the time to place blame. Also, blame migrants and poor people and idk, maybe Jimmy Carter or something.”
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Economy recovers
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New Crime happens
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Best case scenario, what can we hope for?
Forgive my cynicism, but even if they get caught for egregiousness, I can’t imagine they won’t just get a “cost of doing business” slap on the wrist. I can only hope I’m wrong.
I agree the fines that are issued for these companies is way to low. But on the bright side the FTC is actually doing their job and if it is making C-suite executives even the slightest bit nervous I’m for it. Yep I know that is a low bar but it’s something
It’s absolutely something and a direct result of Democrats being in power.
Could you ever image a republican even asking about price fixing?? They’d probably be passing tax cuts for the offending corporations instead of fighting for the consumer.
As a consumer, probably not much and definitely not fast.
However, in the context of the Albertson and Kroger merger, it could cast shade on that case and impact the outcome.
So I guess, optimistically, we can hope it slows our capitalistic death march towards monopolistic consolidation of businesses.
does this need investigation? a spike in profit should be rather obvious, if not the spike than increased income and some new mysterious expenses.
Yes, if there’s collusion or a lack of competition, there are legal solutions, namely breaking up the offending companies.
namely breaking up the offending companies.
When was the last time this happened?
Bell telephone
So 42 years ago.
Yes it does. Because they need ironclad proof if they’re going to take legal action.
I love that we need ironclad proof to decide whether or not it’s okay for people to be able to afford sustenance or not. If there’s no proof then, oh well! The poors will just have to make do.
That’s how legal cases work. You have to prove your side. I’m not sure how else they should work.
I’m aware that’s how they work but when the system “works” and the result is starving families then maybe it’s time we rethink whether we should keep following this system, no?
So how should it work? What system could not be abused by, for example, a Trump administration?
Would you prefer the FTC just forces them to cut prices, and then give both the corporations reason to sue them, as well as more right-wing talking points about “big government stealing money from Ma and Pa grocer”? The unfortunate reality is that if the FTC don’t do this investigation and come back with hard proof, no matter how blatantly obvious what the large grocers are doing actually is, they will play the victim and make it even harder to take any hard action against them.
The other reality is that, even if it’s not actually the case, if it turned out that it was just “inflation” and all those companies did have to raise prices to stay afloat (again, not saying this is the case at all, just simply playing devil’s advocate), the FTC would face an absolute shitstorm if they took action and it did actually do serious harm to grocers/the broader food supply chain. Again, not a “Oh no, profits were only up 20% YoY instead of 35% because of the FTC action” but a “We will literally be selling all our products at a severe loss and will be bankrupt in weeks”. They have to understand exactly how much they’re fucking people over to take action, because historically there have been plenty of times where a well-intentioned “Stop fucking people over” rule, has caused much greater consequences down the line.
It sucks and is disgusting that in such a wealthy nation that we have people going hungry at all, but at least they’re attempting to finally do something about this specific issue, and hopefully will at least discourage shit like this in the future.
Anecdotal, but I really feel like it’s the restaurants that are jacking up prices this year.
fast food or dine in? it’s funny because the less “corporate” the restaurant, the more likely it is that they’re getting a lot of their ingredients in the same place that you get yours
Both are.
Better than nothing I guess.
YES
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I’m going to lay a bit of the prices on consumers. Anecdotal, I know, but I don’t have to pay outrageous prices.
We have several grocery stores within 10 miles. The new Publix, by far the most costly option, is packed out everyday. Those same customers could go 1-mile down the road to Winn Dixie for far lower prices. Or, go a few more miles and hit Walmart for even lower prices.
Hell, if you went that far, you already passed Aldi FFS, and they’re hilariously cheap. And on the same trip, you would have passed two old, raggedy grocery stores that are as low or lower than Aldi. Just tried another place a little farther along and my beer is 22% cheaper. Everything was cheaper. We packed a grocery cart full of goods, including 3 cases of beer and plenty of meats, for $130. I can put $130 in a Publix hand basket.
Yet the cheap stores are empty in comparison to Publix and Winn Dixie. Guess people are willing to pay double for a modern, brightly lit store instead of going in the “poor people” groceries? Not my problem, let 'em pay for their snobbery.
And before anyone assumes I have 7 choices by living in a big city, my town and the town next door total 36,000, and that covers a lot of square miles out in the countryside. It’s anything but urban around here.
The people truly getting fucked are the ones for whom a Dollar General is the only reasonably close store, along with the people who can’t afford a car and have to walk to one. While I’m a big fan of them serving (if unserved) rural communities, grocery shopping there is a hella bill.
I do my grocery shopping almost exclusively at Aldi and my grocery bills still increased a cumulative 50% at a minimum since before the pandemic.
You’re right. The Albersons near my house is hella expensive. Let me just drive farther to pay the same outrageous prices at the other 17 Albertson’s.
Nah dude, you’re just incredibly lucky to live in a place near so many lower priced options. I live in a very urban area, and the only nearby grocery stores are Kroger, Meijer, and Fresh Market, and the prices are all basically the same. The nearest Aldi’s is like 25-30 minutes away.
Also, I guarantee you that prices have been increasing at a similar rate even at the cheap stores.
Lucky?! I think I pointed out that I’m Hicksville, USA. And yes, Aldi is 25-minutes from me as well. Can’t be assed to drive that far to save $50? Not my problem.
There literally isn’t enough time in the day. I can’t spend an hour commuting, plus another hour driving to and from Aldi’s, if I want to actually cook any of the groceries I buy there. Putting blame on consumers is asinine when grocery stores have seen more profit than ever these last couple years.
