FTC to Probe Corporate Greed in Grocery Price Hikes

Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan said Thursday her agency will investigate the high cost of groceries.

During a joint meeting with the Department of Justice, Khan said supermarket chains are gaining "enormous profits" amid the rise in grocery prices that "skyrocketed during the pandemic," The Hill reported Friday.

"One of the top concerns I consistently hear about is high grocery prices every week," she said. "People stock up on the food that they need to feed their families. And too often, people feel like too much of their paycheck is going towards covering the basics like meat or bread or eggs.

"Thanks to the efforts of this team and this administration, inflation for grocery items has averaged zero so far this year; many of the items that people buy most often things like cereal and pasta and potatoes cost less now than they did last year."

Khan then insisted the high cost of groceries was the result of corporate greed at the behest of supermarkets.

"But we also know," she said, "that in the years since, costs have fallen, and supply chains have improved. 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. To make sure we can do so, I'll be asking [the] commission to join me in launching an inquiry into grocery prices, to shed light on why it is that prices and profits remain so high, even as costs appear to have come down.

"But it still isn't clear that Americans are fully getting the competitive, affordable prices that they deserve. Grocery prices skyrocketed during the pandemic due in large part to the higher costs and supply chain disruptions."

In December 2023, economist Peter St Onge posted on X a video of him reacting to President Joe Biden accusing corporations of "price gouging," saying the issue is not price gouging but that inflation "never actually went away."

"All we have today is a slower pace of additional inflation," St Onge wrote. "That 20%-odd inflation that already has occurred under Biden ... those are here forever. They are not transitory; they are permanent."

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