Kroger Groceries Admits to Price Gouging

[mastermind]

Surprised (well not really) that this hasn't been discussed much here.

Kroger executive admits company gouged prices above inflation

Kroger's senior director for pricing Andy Groff said the grocery giant had raised prices for eggs and milk beyond inflation levels.

www.newsweek.com

A top company leader at Kroger has admitted during an antitrust trial the company gouged prices on select items above inflation levels.

While testifying to a Federal Trade Commission attorney Tuesday, Kroger's Senior Director for Pricing Andy Groff said the grocery giant had raised prices for eggs and milk beyond inflation levels.

...

Groff said Kroger intends to "pass through our inflation to consumers," after an internal email from the executive showed that the price of eggs and milk routinely surpassed what inflation would require for the chain to still make profits.

"On milk and eggs, retail inflation has been significantly higher than cost inflation," Groff said in the internal email to other Kroger executives.

 

[FAH1223]

And these economists kept denying corporations were gouging.

 

[StatUS]

It's obvious.

I think Food Lion was the only grocery store I went to these past few years were prices seemed normal

 

[Joe Sixpack]

I've been ranting about this offline

This should be all over the place

This is what the oil companies do too with gas

 

[daemonova]

Kroger ain't shyt, I talk about experience with them, I was left with dread, and venom in my mouth.

 

[mastermind]

And these economists kept denying corporations were gouging.

economists mostly work for capital

 

[FAH1223]

economists mostly work for capital

Yep

I argued with a Brazilian girl at my job who has an economist background about why we had inflation.

She just kept saying the trillions spent from CARES Act, American Rescue Plan, Infrastructure Bill, Inflation Reduction Act, CHIPS Act are the sole cause. While some of those laws esp the latter 3 haven’t even fully kicked in!

I said do you not realize the supply chain shocks, the war in Ukraine that shot up oil/gas prices, and corporations price gouging?!!

She kept denying and I was bringing her receipts.

 

[mastermind]

Yep

I argued with a Brazilian girl at my job who has an economist background about why we had inflation.

She just kept saying the trillions spent from CARES Act, American Rescue Plan, Infrastructure Bill, Inflation Reduction Act, CHIPS Act are the sole cause. While some of those laws esp the latter 3 haven’t even fully kicked in!

I said do you not realize the supply chain shocks, the war in Ukraine that shot up oil/gas prices, and corporations price gouging?!!

She kept denying and I was bringing her receipts.

and the sick thing is this stuff is regurgitated in the media and people just accept it. I remember people saying it on the CARES Act caused inflation on here.

I don't know how people can continue to ingest this stuff with out a critical eye.

 

[Geek Nasty]

AI is being used to algorithmically price all kinds of shyt. I've been looking for a used truck, I watch prices every day. I saw this one vehicle raise its price $3,000 because someone posted the same vehicle at that price. Month later, neither one of them has sold. I don't see how they're making money doing this.

 

[Geek Nasty]

Yep

I argued with a Brazilian girl at my job who has an economist background about why we had inflation.

She just kept saying the trillions spent from CARES Act, American Rescue Plan, Infrastructure Bill, Inflation Reduction Act, CHIPS Act are the sole cause. While some of those laws esp the latter 3 haven’t even fully kicked in!

I said do you not realize the supply chain shocks, the war in Ukraine that shot up oil/gas prices, and corporations price gouging?!!

She kept denying and I was bringing her receipts.

I don't know how, but economists have pro-corporate Milton Friedman philosophy drilled into their heads and it doesn't matter how bad the economy gets they stick to the same algorithms. They can't even tell the economy is about to collapse "but the Dow Jones!"

 

[Wild self]

Yep

I argued with a Brazilian girl at my job who has an economist background about why we had inflation.

She just kept saying the trillions spent from CARES Act, American Rescue Plan, Infrastructure Bill, Inflation Reduction Act, CHIPS Act are the sole cause. While some of those laws esp the latter 3 haven’t even fully kicked in!

I said do you not realize the supply chain shocks, the war in Ukraine that shot up oil/gas prices, and corporations price gouging?!!

She kept denying and I was bringing her receipts.

Most economists are selfish pieces of shyt that look out for themselves. They are scared of telling the truth about their CEO bosses jacking up prices for selfish pursuits.

 

[Elim Garak]

These threads never do numbers because thecoli wants to blame Biden and dems on inflation.

 

[mastermind]

These threads never do numbers because thecoli wants to blame Biden and dems on inflation.

It won’t do numbers because it’s not about a political candidate or party, which is fine with me tbf.

 

[Professor Emeritus]

AI is being used to algorithmically price all kinds of shyt. I've been looking for a used truck, I watch prices every day. I saw this one vehicle raise its price $3,000 because someone posted the same vehicle at that price. Month later, neither one of them has sold. I don't see how they're making money doing this.

The people with money can afford to wait. The stereotypical way of doing things (the way those supply/demand curves are based on) is maximizing profit at current demand levels by finding the highest price at which the truck will sell. Actually getting that profit by making a sale is essential. But under algorithms, the entire market can go into collusion mode and say, "Hey, we're going to target these profit levels and we're going to MAKE you like it, or we'll just wait you out." Maybe they'll get it now and maybe they'll get it 6 months from now, they're fine either way. But they know that they're not just driving up their profit on that one sale, their price collusion drives up the price on ALL their inventory and thus the reward is so much higher than just one sale.

Maybe they'll make an error sometimes and that one truck doesn't sell. But if they drive up the profit 50% on two other trucks that do sell, they've made their profits anyway and are still sitting on extra inventory on top of it. Failing to make one particular sale isn't the driving factor it once was before whole-market collusion could drive prices up across the board.

 

[The axe murderer]

One of many.

I've been ranting about this offline

This should be all over the place

This is what the oil companies do too with gas

For real