Grocery Spooks

Saturday-Sunday, October 19-20, 2024

Grocery Spooks

Grocery stores spy on each other to find out their prices, their product assortment, their services, and just about everything else that a shopper might see. They do so not only by reading their competitors’ mailers, ads, and websites, but also by shopping at the competing outlet next door.

As Patrick Thomas reports for the WSJ:

Companies commonly use rivals’ prices as a benchmark in setting their own, but these tactics have gained attention from government antitrust lawyers seeking to block a $20 billion merger between Kroger and Albertsons, the respective largest and second-largest U.S. supermarket chains by sales.

Because all things these days are political, and all things political these days are fundamentally stupid, we can expect the politicians to fall over each other to fix all this—in the name of Joe Schlitzpack, put upon by, uh, competition among grocery retailers, can’t we?

Food prices in America are under heavy scrutiny as consumers now spend more of their income on food than they have in decades. Consumer advocates and government officials have blamed corporate greed for food-price inflation. It has been a hot issue on the presidential campaign trail, with Republican Donald Trump blaming his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris, for fueling inflation while serving as vice president. Harris has called for banning price gouging in food and groceries. 

Hey, I’ve got an idea! How’s about Mr. Trump and Mrs. Harris quit the political race today and take up management at a grocery retailer. There, they can battle it out by offering things actual consumers want, rather than malinformed proposals. Maybe they could figure out how feasible it is or not to offer actual benefits to real people—things such as lower prices and improved quality. That would be something at least productive and beneficial to all, as opposed to the nakedly greedy pursuit of power and fame.