At this point I think it's safe to say that the protestations, by multiple large for-profit corporate media outlets, that the American inflation crisis had "nothing to do with corporate price gouging" can safely be dismissed as a form of national gaslighting based on class sympathies and antagonism. Not only were corporate executives literally bragging about using the pandemic and "inflation" as an excuse to squeeze the most out of consumers all the way back in 2021, but numerous independent studies by economists more or less confirmed as much as well. Now you can add testimony given to the Federal Trade Commission by a top Kroger executive to the mounting pile of evidence that folks in the media denying this are completely full of shit and trying to rewrite history for their fellow corporate actors.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/kroger-egg-prices
During Antitrust Trial, Exec Admits Kroger Jacked Up Milk and Egg Prices Above Inflation
"Andy Groff, Kroger's senior director for pricing, said during a court hearing on the FTC's legal challenge to the company's proposed acquisition of Albertsons—its primary competitor—that Kroger's objective is to "pass through our inflation to consumers."
Groff's comment came in response to questioning about an internal email he sent to other Kroger executives in March. In that note, Groff observed that "on milk and eggs, retail inflation has been significantly higher than cost inflation."
I don't know if anyone reading this needs me to translate that last statement from corporate greedbag to English, but if you're confused about what buddy means by these two types of "inflation" he's copping to Kroger raising the prices on milk and eggs by more than the increase in costs for the company to obtain and sell those products - in other words, he's confessing to (or rather, bragging about) Kroger engaging in price gouging. Of course this isn't exactly "news" to anyone trying to make ends meet and put food on their family's table the past 3-4 years, but given the aforementioned national gaslighting campaign corporate media is engaging in to deny this, Groff's testimony in an antitrust case challenging Kroger's merger with Albertsons seems pretty relevant.
As one of the links provided in this article goes on to note, the FTC has *already* produced a report indicating that corporations in the grocery business definitely seized on the fallout from the Covid 19 pandemic to milk customers for as much money as possible, above and beyond their own increased costs, saying "large market participants accelerated and distorted the negative effects associated with supply chain disruptions." This same FTC report also goes on to note that these price increases have long outlived the supply chain disruptions greedy corporations blamed them on, and remain in place as of the spring of 2024 when the report was produced: "some in the grocery retail industry seem to have used rising costs as an opportunity to further raise prices to increase their profits, which remain elevated today." As another link in this article notes, most of this has also been confirmed in a recent Financial Times story as well.
So if the FTC is saying large corporations in the grocery business are engaging in price gouging and using supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic as an excuse, the Financial Times is confirming that's the case, and we have multiple instances of actual grocery chain executives confessing or bragging about doing so themselves, why are outlets like the Washington Post, and NBC News producing content that falsely claims otherwise? I can't profess to know what's in the mind of a mainstream American media executive, but I'd hazard a guess that if you study the inbred nature of the U.S. corporate sector and the long history of class war in this country, you'll find your answer. Corporate media muppets are just looking out for number one; and broke consumers like you "ain't even number two."
