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Thursday, May 02-May 08, 2024
VOL. 13,
NO. 169
Feds: Grocery chain profits soared during and after pandemic By Suzanne Potter, Producer, Public News Service
C
onsumer groups are accusing major grocery retailers - like Amazon, Kroger and Walmart - of price gouging, both during and after the pandemic. The allegation of corporate greed comes after a new report from the Federal Trade Commission found profits for grocery chains jumped sharply, at rates that could not be justified by supply chain disruptions. Angela Huffman is president of the nonprofit Farm Action. "It's one thing to raise your prices to cover higher expenses, but what these companies did is use the pandemic as an excuse to exploit the American people who needed to put food on their tables," said Huffman. "And the FTC report shows that they're still doing it, here in 2024." The report found that retailer profits rose to 6%
Amazon Fresh store. | Photo by Ted Eytan CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED
over total costs in 2021, and 7% in the first three quarters
of 2023 - compared to 5.6% in 2015.
According to a report from Help Advisor, Cali-
fornia households pay the highest grocery costs in the
country, averaging almost $300 a week - about $27 more than the national average. The Food Industry Association blames today's high prices on high labor costs and credit card payment fees. Huffman said she thinks the feds should take antitrust action to increase competition - and consider forcing the grocery behemoths to break up. "That would be the ideal outcome is to take away their excessive power," said Huffman. "But other than that, these companies can be fined for this kind of price gouging. And that's another action we would support. There needs to be some kind of consequences." The FTC staff report recommends "further inquiry by the commission and policymakers," but doesn't propose specific remedies.
4 more LA County probation officers placed on leave over youth violence By Joe Taglieri joet@beaconmedianews.com
T
he Los Angeles County Probation Department has placed four more officers on leave following an internal investigation that found more occurrences of youth violence at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey, the department announced Friday. Since January, Probation Department Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa has put 12 Los Padrinos officers on leave
pending investigations by the state attorney general's office of "incidents of youthon-youth violence." On Jan. 10 Viera Rosa placed eight other officers on leave after a video surfaced showing a violent incident at the facility Dec. 22 involving multiple youth detainees. Viera Rosa said suspending the officers reflects a push to root out probation staff members "responsible
The quad at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey. | Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles County Probation Department
for perpetrating a culture of violence, drugs, or abuse" in
the county's juvenile halls. "While these incidents
involve a small number of our staff, they violate our core values and undermine our ability to do our duty to provide a safe and nurturing environment for the rehabilitation of the youth placed in our care," Viera Rosa said in a statement. "My commitment to dig deeper into potential wrongdoing, to take immediate action, and to publicly
disclose my actions should make it clear that we will not tolerate anything that creates or contributes to a culture of violence in our juvenile facilities." The probation chief said he asked outside agencies to investigate the violent incidents to better enable an unbiased probe as the Probation Department
See Youth violence Page 21