Biden Takes Aim at Grocery Chains Over Food Prices

The problem is the way the system is rigged.

Kroger is a publicly traded company, their stock price right now is 46.71 / share.

You can see their most recent earnings report here:

https://ir.kroger.com/news/news-details/2023/Kroger-Reports-Third-Quarter-2023-Results-and-Updates-Guidance/default.aspx

Operating Profit of $912 million; EPS of $0.88

Now then... for NEXT quarter... It doesn't matter if they are profitable or not. Because they are publicly traded, they are going to be expected to make MORE profit than they did this quarter.

Let's say next quarter they "only" have $890 million in profit... Most of us would KILL to be that profitable.

The stock market analysts will look at it and go "yeah, but you 'lost' $22 million from last quarter..." and they will punish Kroger for failing.

Even worse...

Let's say Kroger raised their prices and pulls in a profit of $915 million next quarter... they can STILL get punished if the market goes "Yeah, but our analysts expected you to bring in $921 million in profit."

Failing to meet or beat "expectations" is just as bad as raking in less of a profit than last time.

So prices go up, because they have to make more money than the same time last month, last quarter, last year.

Did he say anything about the Albertsons+Kroger merger that’s in the works? ‘Cause that’s not going to make things better and they are acting like it’s a done deal.

accusing the stores of reaping excess profits and ripping off shoppers.

Thanks now can you do this with all the other companies? All.

Eggs are again steadily rising in price. Wal-Mart "great value" prices isn't all that 'great' to begin with, with most of it's products.

But can we stop calling things inflation? Call it for what it really has been - G-R-E-E-D

Publix absolutely has fleeced it's customers since the pandemic.

Government grocery stores would solve this and food deserts...

Must be an election year

In Canada, people think this is an exclusively Canadian issue happening specifically only at Loblaws and their affiliates.

ITS AN INDUSTRY WIDE SCAM.

More in the news: government official complains about matters within their jurisdiction.

Stop taking aim and fire

Why does Biden go after anything but minimum wage? Just because min wage isn't a winning issue doesn't make the problem go away.

There is like two links in that "grocery chains".

Old man wags finger

Here's an archive link :)

He's going to do what Canadian leaders are too dumb to do.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

President Biden, whose approval rating has suffered amid high inflation, is beginning to pressure large grocery chains to slash food prices for American consumers, accusing the stores of reaping excess profits and ripping off shoppers.

Economic research suggests the cost of eggs, milk and other staples — which consumers buy far more frequently than big-ticket items like furniture or electronics — play an outsized role in shaping Americans’ views of inflation.

“It’s hard to figure out what the short-term policy response is in this situation,” said Bharat Ramamurti, a former economic aide to Mr. Biden and an author of a report on grocery-price inflation that will be published on Friday from the progressive Groundwork Collaborative in Washington.

A new analysis from the White House Council of Economic Advisers suggests that elevated profit margins among large grocery retailers could be contributing to the stubbornly high price of food on store shelves.

The analysis, which relies on Census Quarterly Financial Reports data, found that food and beverage stores have increased their margins by about 2 percentage points since the eve of the pandemic, reaching their highest level in two decades.

Researchers from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City found last year that strong job growth in the U.S. economy, and the wage gains associated with a tight labor market, were key contributors to grocery-price increases.

The original article contains 1,165 words, the summary contains 224 words. Saved 81%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Palm the saffron and pecorino romano

Kroger has 2750 grocery stores. 912 million divided by 2750 is 0.3316 million in profit per store

or

each store they own generates $331,636 in profits a quarter.

This is 2.7% of their overall revenue.

What profit margin is acceptable? 0.1%? 0.0%?

That's good because they are. Sometimes they don't even have the prices accurate I've actually had to report my local Target to the department of weights and measures because they don't even have prices at the register that match what's on the shelves.

Biden takes aim at Palestinian children over objections of humanity.

This is hands down some of the stupidest shit to focus on.

The big expense in our lives isn't gas and groceries. It's fucking healthcare. Let's all just fucking ignore INSANE pharma profits and INSANE profits for health insurance companies who are legally required to not earn more than 20% of the 100% pie of healthcare spending for treatments.

We pay more for drugs, medical devices and treatments than anywhere else in the world because we do not collectively bargain. We don't regulate price changes AT ALL like almost every country in the world does.

Insurance companies are encouraged to raise the prices for treatments - and thus premiums - because they cannot make more than 20% of said treatments. So if a treatment is $100, they can only profit $20. If a treatment is $10000 - the insurance company can profit $2000. DOES ANYONE SEE THIS AS A PROBLEM!?!?!?