Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan is going for a hat trick of consumer woe fixes. After working to lower the cost of many asthma inhalers to just $35 out-of-pocket and making it easier for Americans to cancel online subscriptions they don’t want, Khan has put out the word that she’s going after grocery prices next.
Khan announced her intentions at the first public meeting of the Strike Force on Unfair and Illegal Pricing – a cadre of FTC and Department of Justice representatives who have come together to see what is feasible when it comes to all the consumer protection topics that are more and more a part of the news cycle.
“Too often, people feel like too much of their paycheck is going towards covering the basics, like meat or bread or eggs,” she said. She admitted that a good number of grocery items consumers buy – cereal, pasta, and potatoes – actually cost less now than they did last year, but “it still isn’t clear that Americans are fully getting the competitive, affordable prices that they deserve,” she said.
“Grocery prices skyrocketed during the pandemic, due in large part to the higher costs and supply chain disruptions,” Khan noted. “But we also know that in the years since, costs have fallen and supply chains have improved. Many items, though, are still too costly, and many large grocery chains are still raking in enormous profits.”
Khan’s not saying, but under her breath, she may be hoping for the same outcome Canadians were recently given when grocery chains had charged consumers more than is reasonable.
Canada’s new Grocery Code of Conduct aims to guarantee consumers that there’s fairness and transparency in how grocers deal with their customers and that the bigger chains help maintain a level playing field so their smaller, independent counterparts have a way to compete for the same dollar.
What the rest of 2024 looks like
Food prices, year over year, are caught in the middle of all this, but there’s a fork in the road where the consumer begins to win and where the consumer continues to lose.
Overall, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for food at home from May 2024 to June 2024 was up 3% compared to June 2023. With that, prices for six food-at-home categories dropped – including fish and seafood, dairy products, fresh fruits, and fresh vegetables – while seven – including beef and veal – rose.
And beef and veal will continue to put the hurt on pocketbooks. The USDA predicts that the price of beef and veal will rise by as much as 4.4% and the oil it takes to cook many of those meats will rise by 3.4%.
The other trouble spots are sugar, sweets, and nonalcoholic beverages. Despite those prices remaining stable in June, it’s estimated that the price of sugar and sweets will rise by 3.4%, and the price of nonalcoholic beverages by 2.3%.