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Costco, Walmart, Kroger 'Grossly Inflated' The Price Of Eggs During Coronavirus Pandemic, Lawsuit Claims
Fox News ^ | 4-29-2020 | Michael Bartiromo

Posted on 04/29/2020 8:58:31 AM PDT by blam

Dozens of retailers and farms have been named in a class-action lawsuit that alleges they engaged in price-gouging by marking up the price of eggs sold in California.

Costco, Trader Joe’s, Walmart and Kroger were just a few of the retailers accused of “the despicable and illegal practice of price-gouging of essential groceries” amid the ongoing coronavirus health crisis, according to court filings obtained by Bloomberg Law.

The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges that plaintiffs noticed “grossly inflated” prices at retailers after Calif. Governor Gavin Newsom issued a declaration of emergency on March 4.

“As in any time of economic turmoil, there are those who seek to profit from the misery of millions," claims the lawsuit, which accuses multiple large retailers of "grossly" inflating the prices of eggs.

“As in any time of economic turmoil, there are those who seek to profit from the misery of millions. Defendants, who are producers, wholesalers, and retailers of eggs, comprise one such set of actors seeking to unfairly profit from the increased consumer demand for eggs in the midst of the ongoing crisis,” the lawsuit reads.

The complaint stops just short of accusing every single retailer and farm of price-gouging. Rather, the lawsuit alleges that “at a minimum, some of these defendants did so.”

Those named in the lawsuit include major retailers, like Costco, Walmart, Amazon, Trader Joe’s and Kroger, among other major retailers, regional chains, and farms across the Midwest, West and Southwest.

(snip)

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: eggs; grocerystores; inflated; lawsuit
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1 posted on 04/29/2020 8:58:31 AM PDT by blam
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To: blam

Greed causes kiss to profits good-by.


2 posted on 04/29/2020 9:03:17 AM PDT by Vaduz (women and children to be impacIQ of chimpsted the most.)
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To: blam

And many other staple necessities.
Eggs are up 50%, milk is up 50% at Walmart from February prices.


3 posted on 04/29/2020 9:03:28 AM PDT by entropy12 (You are either for free enterprise or want gov't to guarantee your wages.)
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To: blam

Price should reflect demand and cost of doing business.

I’m OK with the price going up if it helps supply meet demand.

Right now distribution and labor are all in need of firm support for continued supply. If the stores go empty, there will be actual mayhem in the streets of some big cities.


4 posted on 04/29/2020 9:04:45 AM PDT by Bayard
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To: blam

And, yet, hospitals can still charge $20 for a single Tylenol and $1,000 if a “specialist” comes by and sees you for 5 minutes...


5 posted on 04/29/2020 9:05:19 AM PDT by 2banana (My common ground with islamic terrorists - they want to die for allah and we want to kill them.)
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To: entropy12

How do they know that the suppliers haven’t raised their prices and the stores are selling at the exact same markup they always do?


6 posted on 04/29/2020 9:05:40 AM PDT by Oshkalaboomboom
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To: blam

The grocery near me has always had eggs at wildly varying prices. Eighteen eggs has varied at $1.00 to $$3.00 (I presumed they were sometimes a loss-leader). Last time I went they were $4.99 for eighteen. I got them anyway. Twenty seven cents per egg is still a bare fraction of what you pay at Denny’s. If I didn’t like it, I could have moved on. No one had a gun to my head (and if they did, then soon as they dropped it, we’d have exchanged words, or something else).

Not even a story. Except for the greedy lawyers (and I’m a lawyer).


7 posted on 04/29/2020 9:05:55 AM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: Oshkalaboomboom

They’d have to care.

They don’t.


8 posted on 04/29/2020 9:06:33 AM PDT by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds.)
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To: blam
Defendants, who are producers, wholesalers, and retailers of eggs, comprise one such set of actors seeking to unfairly profit from the increased consumer demand for eggs in the midst of the ongoing crisis,”

Let me get this straight. Supply and demand no longer mean anything in this country. Prices need to be artificially set based on what? An historical price perhaps? Let's apply that to the stock market and everyone's retirement plan. There should be a class action lawsuit against every exchange, bank and brokerage house because they allowed the supply and demand set the market price. The market should immediately be returned to its pre-ChiCom flu prices and the defendants shall pay treble damages to all shareholders. Now that is social justice!

9 posted on 04/29/2020 9:06:58 AM PDT by ConservativeInPA (It's official! I'm nominated for the 2020 Mr. Hyperbole and Sarcasm Award.)
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To: Vaduz

Yes. See my 7. Insanely greedy lawyers. And greedy primary clients.


10 posted on 04/29/2020 9:07:12 AM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: Larry Lucido

Wow, your egg prices are cheap!

In Phoenix, we pay between $3-4 per dozen unless it’s organic then you can expect to pay at least $1 more.


11 posted on 04/29/2020 9:08:03 AM PDT by hsmomx3
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To: ConservativeInPA

Everybody who is part of this class-action should work for 1928 wages. Otherwise they are greedy as hell!


12 posted on 04/29/2020 9:08:58 AM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: blam

Chains have dropped all discounts on items in many cases. Used to be roughly 20% of total items had some cents off tags nationally. And “we are offering a reduced special brochure at this time” by the handouts in front.

Supposed to “help” us have availability of food chain problem items. And a nice profit boost on the side.

When many categories of items in stores have been totally empty after buyouts by the consumers for pasts couple of months, especially at the start, how much extra profit did the chains make?

Anyone know?


13 posted on 04/29/2020 9:09:24 AM PDT by frank ballenger (End vote fraud,harvesting,non-citizen voting & leftist media news censorship or we are finished.)
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To: blam

Couldn’t be that there was an egg-oriented holiday occurring at the same time all this lockdown panic was happening either. Nope, gotta be greed.


14 posted on 04/29/2020 9:10:03 AM PDT by jz638
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To: blam

Next time, we need to eat the lawyers.


15 posted on 04/29/2020 9:12:19 AM PDT by Empire_of_Liberty
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To: blam

The egg prices at my Walmart in Payson, Arizona were definitely higher. The increase was probably close to 50%. But I was happy that there were eggs on the shelves. Low priced empty shelves would not have done me any good, at all.


16 posted on 04/29/2020 9:13:28 AM PDT by the_Watchman
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To: Bayard

Exactly.

Think of how much overtime are these suppliers having to pay to keep up with demand.


17 posted on 04/29/2020 9:15:57 AM PDT by CommieCutter ("Trump is god emperor and he will win." -- some hacker)
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To: blam

Price of 5 quart bottles of oil were VERY high in Walmart. I posted it, but got flamed. Never mind.


18 posted on 04/29/2020 9:16:28 AM PDT by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin (Freedom is the freedom to discipline yourself so others don't have to do it for you.)
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To: All

You think egg prices are high now?

Just wait.

They are purposely destroying millions of laying chickens.

And dairy cows

and hogs

and possibly even steers for meat,

Because they don’t want to feed them any longer due to temporarily reduced demand, and transportation problems and processors shut down, etc., due to the idiotic panic over Covid-19.

A good meal is going to be REAL expensive in a few months.


19 posted on 04/29/2020 9:16:32 AM PDT by LegendHasIt
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To: 2banana

That’s in part to the lawyers who’ll sue for anything...of course, that means a person is contacting the attorney to sue the hospital.


20 posted on 04/29/2020 9:17:02 AM PDT by ealgeone
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