Presidential candidate Kamala Harris is targeting high grocery prices and says that if elected, she will work to ban price gouging on food and in grocery stores.
But is profiteering in the food trade really a problem? Does it only affect food or is it much more complicated?
Here’s what you think:
Douglas Welty, Business Development Manager at Associated Grocers Baton Rouge (retired)
How stupid she is, and the rest think we are all. It’s more complicated, you have to start from scratch: what it costs, from the fields to transportation and manufacturing to wholesale and sale at the market. The grocer only makes pennies on what he sells. That’s the case with chains and independent retailers. And then you add to that the government’s constant demand for wage increases. Then add that to the expenses these people have to pay for the company’s insurance and health care.
Joseph Laflamme, Joe Laflamme Sales & Consulting LLC
It never ends well when governments interfere in consumer pricing. Supermarkets operate on very thin margins and pricing to the consumer is the last step in a long process that involves farming, manufacturing, transportation and warehousing. There would be no way to implement or enforce price controls on hundreds of thousands of items and Kamala and her team know this. That’s why there are no specifics to this plan, just a soundbite to appeal to voters who are struggling to pay their bills due to the current administration’s extremely inflationary policies.
David Franklin, Retail Manager
The only people to blame for inflation are the central bank, fractional reserve policy, and Congress.
Ron Messmer, Manager at Marsh Supermarkets
Look at the supermarket industry as a whole…1% net…that’s one of those things that sounds so wonderful but at the end of the day the net margin is razor thin and has been for decades. Everyone buys groceries so hey…let’s get those prices down…but competition keeps groceries prices at a level without government intervention…politics is just education to see reality!!
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