“This was not a secret,” Mabud added.
Shocking, I know.
Andy Groff, Kroger’s pricing mastermind, spilled the beans during an FTC hearing.
Translation: “Let’s squeeze those poor fuckin pleabs for every penny we can.”
Oh, that email was “cherry-picked,” they say.
Their decades-long business model is all about “lowering prices.”
This revelation isn’t just about Kroger.
It’s a symptom of a larger disease plaguing corporate America.
Companies across the board have been posting record profits while consumers struggle with sky-high inflation.
The math is simple: they’re raising prices because they can, not because they have to.
Remember those “supply chain issues” we kept hearing about?
Sure, they played a role.
It’s the American way, right?
But it was one of those things you just had to suck up and take on the chin.
Again, understandable given the situation.
But two years later, those costs haven’t come down.
They’re the new baseline basically.
And even that is understandable.
It is capitalism after all.
You and your work is worth what somebody is willing to pay.
Adam Smith and the Wealth of Nations right?
Why would you lower costs if people are still paying higher rates?
Thatis the part of this I understand and fully grasp.
Gouging average folks on shit that is essential to feeding their families feels like dirty pool.
The FTC (by the way, does this organization actually do anything?)
is trying to block Kroger’s merger with Albertsons, claiming it would lead to even higher prices.
My hero George Carlin said it all too perfectly, we have “the illusion of choice”.
We’re at the mercy of these corporate giants, who prioritize shareholder wealth over everything else.
Guess we just have to live with it.
That’s not by coincidence.
Maybe I’m crazy but I don’t know how this isn’t a bigger deal to people?
