Retail Giants Have Found A Way To Keep Food Prices High Forever

The cost of groceries in America is out of control, and a new report says the prices can no longer be blamed on inflation or supply chain issues – Its all due to corporate greed. Grocery store chains used the pandemic to raise prices on everything, and those higher prices appear to be here to stay. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

The cost of groceries in America is out of control and a new report says the prices can no longer be blamed on inflation or supply chain issues. It's all due to corporate greed. Grocery store chains used the pandemic to raise prices on everything and those higher prices are here to stay. Now what's so interesting about this, when I was reading this story, I thought about you because you were doing some of the first stories, I remember when we were saying, these prices go crazy, where you said, this is here to stay. They've used the pandemic as this big fraud and they're here to stay. Pick the story up for me, because you were early on in this story. I remember that.
Yeah. And listen, we had that period of super high inflation when we had the supply chain issues. So yeah, that was market trying to fix itself and it never does a good job of it. And while that happens, while inflation hits 10% on prices, the corporations come in and say, okay, well we gotta raise 'em 10%, but what if we raise 'em 20%? Because eventually that first 10% from inflation does go away. But that second 10% never does. That becomes the new base price. So they, the corporations that do this, their profits are already up that 10% on every good. But consumers think, oh, well the price came down because it was $3 last week, but now it's $2 and 70 cents. Well, it should be $2. You're getting screwed out of that extra 70 cents.
They learned from the healthcare story, didn't they?
Yep.
They learned from the healthcare story. And now we're seeing grocery prizes five times the inflation rate, where you've got families that are working two or three jobs and the White House could do something about it. You can have price control mandates. But really, the economists are saying, it's basically, it is some activity by the corporations, but we have an inflation problem that's here to stay, period, until something dramatic happens. Add that, this greed, I don't know how people even buy eggs and milk anymore. It's that bad.
Right. If it were just inflation, that would be difficult enough, but it would be manageable to a degree. With that price gouging that's coming on top of that, that as you said, is far more than inflation could ever dream of being, that's what's really killing these people because we know these grocery store CEOs every year, they're pocketing tens of millions of dollars because we're doing such a good job of making sure this single mother can't feed her kids because we're stealing extra money from her, for her eggs and milk.
How about the argument where you hear 'em, well, if we can get bigger? Okay. If Walmart or whoever, if we can just get bigger and more of a conglomerate, we can pass the savings onto you. That story. You hear that all the time. It's nonsense. It's just ridiculous. It sounds good. Yeah, they get bigger. Gee, I guess the economy of scale, they can give us better prices, right. Just the opposite is taking place.
Well, and it used to be, you had your, typically in a state you would have your grocery stores that you wouldn't see in any other state. Publix originally was only a Florida thing. Now it's all over the country. Same thing with Kroger's or Albertsons, which I think those two have now merged.
Right.
You used to have your Winn-Dixie's and your Food Worlds and all these options and slowly they've all been consolidated. So that's all you see. It's homogenous across huge swaths of the country because we don't have your little local grocers anymore.

[vet]

only stupid people don't see the greed

[michaelccopelandsr]

Capitalism 101: You don't help the people. You prey on them!

[timguillory]

I’ve been saying it all along corporate greed isn’t inflation

[kaninma]

These entitled people are getting additional money for doing no work, and they are hurting millions of people. They should not be allowed to do that. The US needs to engage in direct intervention by implementing price control.

[glennjarvis]

Corporate greed creates inflation, or at least a good portion of it.

[waynesbutler]

Doesnt matter what country you are from, inflation has effected all of us with the issue with inflated grocery and gas prices . But the most aggravating thing is the reported profits and bonuses from these greedy grocery store CEOs, and gas companies are just behind them for the same reason .

[jeffreyjack]

70's AT&T all over again except without the government regulation.

[cathyperger]

I was saying it was corporate greed since the prices started going up so ridiculously!

[moflow]

Don't forget how you are also getting less now, which just adds to the greed. 🤑🙄

[KWHCoaster]

Not just USA, here in Canada as well. Huge backlash against Loblaws' prices.

[squirrelwood]

Corporations should be forced to publicly and transparently report profit margins if they are over a certain amount or percentage. Have them admit to the world just how greedy they are.

[rjung_ch]

Since ever has corporate greed been a huge issue, but then again, those in power will hardly ever go after them, the system is broken.

[FranklinWilson-evdq]

They All Are Conspiring, Together! It Amazes Me: That They Think, We Don't Know

[BangPDsMom]

People are blaming Biden, but it’s the grocery chains that are the real villains. My grocery bills have increased 25% in the last couple of yrs. I’m retired, disabled and on a fixed income so things aren’t going to get any better for me.

[katiebice]

Closing the 99 cent stores and half of the Dollar Tree stores has hit really hard. Now the Dollar Tree, in addition to raising everything to at LEAST $1.25, now have $5, $7 and even $10 dollar items like the 99 cent stores had. And some of the best products that was a great value, are no longer available. And you have to be very careful what you buy. Winco has their brand green beans for 64 cents. THEY ARE A $1.25 at the Dollar Tree. And the Dollar Tree does NOT carry FRESH PRODUCE like the 99 cent stores did.

[patriciaoconnor]

Another thing that aggravates the living 💩 out of me. Gatorade was once 32 oz. Now it is 28 oz . for the same price and often higher in some areas. It is absolutely unbelievable.

[eddyeroyal]

They just dont want to cut prices, since the economy has comeback to life.

[nuttinbedderdo]

Just look at Kroger wanting to merge with Albertsons that for sure isn't bringing any competitive edge to them. What it's doing is eliminating competition and owning market share.

[dodobono]

I started going to Aldi food and dollar general for cleaning and toilet paper etc.

[GCJACK]

I keep telling my aunt: "The price of everything keeps going up instead of down because the government's too afraid to start trust-busting and going after monopolies The corpos keep growing larger by eating each other up, leading to less competition for our dollars and less reason for them to lower the prices of stuff".