Can they go after restaurants adding mandatory 20% fees? I don't mind paying more to pay for ethical pay for employees but adding a mandatory 20% free us just lying about menu prices. It should illegal. Just bake the price into the menu prices.
this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2024
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where do you live that tipping is mandatory? or are you talking about something else?
It is essentially a tip, but it's listed on the bottom of the menu as a mandatory service charge. The restaurant keeps the money (it's not split like case tips) and just pay the employees a good wage without them relying on tips.
It's good in theory but it's dishonest pricing.
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FTC head should be putting a halt on the Kroger+Albertsons merger if he’s really serious.
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But you are correct. My state is suing to prevent that since that would make them a huge percentage of the market and create many areas with no competition.
But didn't you hear? Less competition makes prices go down. The head of Kroger said so!!!!!
How they have gotten around it before is to promise they will keep prices down and then show how things will be much cheaper for them so they can do it. Unsurprisingly they all fail on their promises shortly after but they have already merged by that point and have little fear of being broken up.
You know things are getting bad when even capitalists are arguing against market economics.
"We believe the way to be America's best grocer is to provide great value by consistently lowering prices and offering more choices. When we do this, more customers shop with us and buy more groceries, which allows us to reinvest in even lower prices, a better shopping experience, and higher wages," said Rodney McMullen, chairman and CEO of Kroger.
It's a load of tripe. All these big companies come in with lower prices, drive their local competition out of business, then raise them once they've got a local monopoly. Even if Kroger currently has the best of intentions (I don't believe that), I wouldn't trust the next person or the one after that.
We're already fighting a losing battle with suppliers gouging and creating higher prices or shrinking portions for the same price. I'm scared to see what grocery bills would look like under a store monopoly in addition to that.
My town has a Kroger (city market) and an Albertsons (Safeway). Only other option is Walmart… the proposed merger would be catastrophic to our ability to afford groceries especially since Kroger is already price gouging to the point I can save $10 per 3ish days worth of food going to Walmart.
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Crime happens
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People notice the crime happening
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Journalists report on the crime
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Documentarians spend thousands of hours collecting data to illustrate the size and scope of the crime
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A national outcry erupts
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Politicians finally consider this worth their attention
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"We're going to look into it."
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Economic collapse occurs because of all the crime
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Giant bailouts for all the criminals
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"Now is not the time to place blame. Also, blame migrants and poor people and idk, maybe Jimmy Carter or something."
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Economy recovers
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New Crime happens
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I buy almost exactly the same stuff every week except when the odd condiment/coffee runs out. I went from $60-75/week to $90-100, and now more recently $110+ all within roughly 18 months...
So now I cut back everything.. I eat baked/grilled chicken with beans and canned vegetables for lunch and have salads for dinner, only eating twice a day... All that just to get back to $70/week.
Just remember, eggs were 12 bucks a dozen until the fed threatened a RICO investigation.
Hopefully the same happens to the rest of our groceries.
Never saw it get $12 crazy, but at one point farmers had to kill off 100 million chickens because of bird flu. That's nearly 1 chicken for every man, woman and child in the US.
Imagine the disposal cost, let alone the costs for sterilizing monstrous chicken warehouses. Then factor in the costs of keeping operations going while they repopulated.
However, there was something I read and can't remember, about the prices staying jacked beyond what was to be expected.
My dad worked for a private company that was a government contractor for almost 30 years before they were bought out by some international corporation.
I asked my dad if they used to have years where they didn't turn a profit. "Oh absolutely, but we made up for it the next year, or they had money set aside, or..."
None of that happens anymore. Those chickens, I guarantee, caught those diseases because of the practices put in place by the 4 or 5 companies that basically produce all of the poultry for this country. They made poor business decisions, they chose to pinch pennies and not put money aside for unexpected emergencies, they continued to pay out dividends and issue stock buy backs instead of creating an emergency fund like they tell us poors we need to do.
So no, I don't care to imagine any of their costs, because if they were a legitimate business, they would have contingency plans in place beyond "jack the prices up as high as they'll go and keep em there until it starts to hurt our wallets enough." They would take the hit for fucking once instead of passing the cost along to those who can least bare it so they can maintain their lifestyle built on greed and stolen wages.
The egg-laying chickens were not as affected from everything I heard.
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at one point farmers had to kill off 100 million chickens because of bird flu. That’s nearly 1 chicken for every man, woman and child in the US.
Didn't seem to impact egg production all that much: https://www.statista.com/statistics/196094/us-total-egg-production-since-2001/
Best case scenario, what can we hope for?
Forgive my cynicism, but even if they get caught for egregiousness, I can't imagine they won't just get a "cost of doing business" slap on the wrist. I can only hope I'm wrong.
I agree the fines that are issued for these companies is way to low. But on the bright side the FTC is actually doing their job and if it is making C-suite executives even the slightest bit nervous I'm for it. Yep I know that is a low bar but it's something
It's absolutely something and a direct result of Democrats being in power.
Could you ever image a republican even asking about price fixing?? They'd probably be passing tax cuts for the offending corporations instead of fighting for the consumer.
As a consumer, probably not much and definitely not fast.
However, in the context of the Albertson and Kroger merger, it could cast shade on that case and impact the outcome.
So I guess, optimistically, we can hope it slows our capitalistic death march towards monopolistic consolidation of businesses.
does this need investigation? a spike in profit should be rather obvious, if not the spike than increased income and some new mysterious expenses.
Yes it does. Because they need ironclad proof if they're going to take legal action.
I love that we need ironclad proof to decide whether or not it's okay for people to be able to afford sustenance or not. If there's no proof then, oh well! The poors will just have to make do.
That's how legal cases work. You have to prove your side. I'm not sure how else they should work.
I'm aware that's how they work but when the system "works" and the result is starving families then maybe it's time we rethink whether we should keep following this system, no?
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Yes, if there's collusion or a lack of competition, there are legal solutions, namely breaking up the offending companies.
But will those solutions be applied? That's always in doubt.
Who knows, but Khan is the best chance we've had of something getting done in a very long time.
We're at an inflection point where Federal government arms actually have to show the citizens they sometimes work. Something may actually happen here. Many government agencies like them, the FCC, DOE, DOT, and FTC are actually being run by people that are trying to make a difference. Did a 4000 mile road trip across the US over the holidays and was impressed to see so many bridges actually being fixed, rebuilt, or replaced. First time I've ever seen that level of progress. (Or at least, level of undoing technical debt.)
Not to fill you with false optimism though. I've not seen our federal government do anything useful my entire life, only take away rights with things like the Patriot Act and making women not be people anymore, so I have a hard time myself believing they will actually do something for the People.
Opposite corollary: They antitrusted Google over search while Google is currently being run by morons and failing at everything, meanwhile ignoring that Apple is becoming an actual monopoly in the US and segregating the population based on the color of a text bubble; owning media production, distribution, and sales; and other bad behavior.
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Not only inflated prices, start measuring and draining canned vegetables. They're all slacking off with the ratio of food to filling. One can of veggies that allegedly had 425g of vegetable in it ended up only having 200g of vegetable in it after the liquid was drained.
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Why not just unmerge Kroger?
NIAAS, National Incorporation As A Service, fee is the difference between highest paid employee and lowest each year. What they receive, not what some outsourcer charges for a limpeza.
Alternative is full incorporation required in each state operated in.
Me too.
Anecdotal, but I really feel like it's the restaurants that are jacking up prices this year.
fast food or dine in? it's funny because the less "corporate" the restaurant, the more likely it is that they're getting a lot of their ingredients in the same place that you get yours
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Better than nothing I guess.
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https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/grocery-cost-inflation-investigation-b2594782.htmlI'm going to lay a bit of the prices on consumers. Anecdotal, I know, but I don't have to pay outrageous prices.
We have several grocery stores within 10 miles. The new Publix, by far the most costly option, is packed out everyday. Those same customers could go 1-mile down the road to Winn Dixie for far lower prices. Or, go a few more miles and hit Walmart for even lower prices.
Hell, if you went that far, you already passed Aldi FFS, and they're hilariously cheap. And on the same trip, you would have passed two old, raggedy grocery stores that are as low or lower than Aldi. Just tried another place a little farther along and my beer is 22% cheaper. Everything was cheaper. We packed a grocery cart full of goods, including 3 cases of beer and plenty of meats, for $130. I can put $130 in a Publix hand basket.
Yet the cheap stores are empty in comparison to Publix and Winn Dixie. Guess people are willing to pay double for a modern, brightly lit store instead of going in the "poor people" groceries? Not my problem, let 'em pay for their snobbery.
And before anyone assumes I have 7 choices by living in a big city, my town and the town next door total 36,000, and that covers a lot of square miles out in the countryside. It's anything but urban around here.
The people truly getting fucked are the ones for whom a Dollar General is the only reasonably close store, along with the people who can't afford a car and have to walk to one. While I'm a big fan of them serving (if unserved) rural communities, grocery shopping there is a hella bill.
Nah dude, you're just incredibly lucky to live in a place near so many lower priced options. I live in a very urban area, and the only nearby grocery stores are Kroger, Meijer, and Fresh Market, and the prices are all basically the same. The nearest Aldi's is like 25-30 minutes away.
Also, I guarantee you that prices have been increasing at a similar rate even at the cheap stores.
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I do my grocery shopping almost exclusively at Aldi and my grocery bills still increased a cumulative 50% at a minimum since before the pandemic.
You're right. The Albersons near my house is hella expensive. Let me just drive farther to pay the same outrageous prices at the other 17 Albertson's.
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