Free Republic

This may well be the dumbest damn thing we've ever seen any candidate suggest to their supporters ... is Tim Walz trying to get someone hurt? Cripes. Watch: Sure, Tim, tell your supporters to go up to people trying to figure out how to afford everything they need for their family to eat for the week and nag them about voting for Kamala. We're sure that will absolutely convince them all to vote for her. Is he stupid or just pretending?

From taxes to spending, Kamala is the most left-wing major party candidate since George McGovern -- who proposed a Universal Basic Income in 1972 and went on to win a single state.But her most hare-brained scheme -- so far -- has been price controls, where she's to the left of McGovern, threatening to punish grocery stores for daring to charge more than their costs.In fact, grocery stores make 1 to 2 pennies on the dollar. Meaning they have to pass along costs that come straight from the Washington money printer.That means price controls would, in short, break food.Price Controls Always...

Democrats proclaim that their convention’s theme is “joy,” but that feeling does not translate to Americans suffering from the Biden-Harris administration’s inflation. There is nothing joyful about paying 22 percent more for groceries since Vice President Kamala Harris took office. Data from the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics show that grocery prices jumped 22 percent from January 2021 — when President Joe Biden and Harris first took office — to July 2024. This holds true even though the Biden-Harris White House remains in complete denial, falsely claiming that grocery prices went down. While Americans do not need charts and data...

Greetings, comrade worker: Candidate for Party General Secretary Kamala Harris has promised to punish the hoarders and wreckers driving up grocery prices. All hail the might of Soviet labor! That’s the latest bonkers proposal from Komrade Kamala Harris, unveiled in her marquee speech on the economy Friday — socialist price controls on groceries. Because the sky-high grocery prices average Americans have seen since she’s been in office couldn’t be the result of her boss’s disastrous economic policies. No, they must be caused by price-gouging corporate overlords who for some reason want customers to buy less of their products. The data...

Washington Post: Kamala Harris to propose ban on ‘price gouging’ for food, groceries https://washingtonpost.com/business/2024/08/15/kamala-harris-economic-policy-2024/Me: The Maduro diet: How most Venezuelans lost an average of 43 pounds in two years https://danfromsquirrelhill.wordpress.com/2020/07/15/43-pounds/

CHICAGO — Nearly a year after Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration floated the possibility of opening a municipally owned grocery store to help improve food access on the South and West sides, a feasibility study created for the city describes a municipal grocery model as “necessary, feasible, and implementable.” The study recommends the city pursue some version of a municipally owned store or stores — and finds such stores could even turn a profit. It also suggests the city not attempt to operate a supermarket itself, but rather partner with a for-profit operator, a non-profit operator or a co-op. Private grocers...

During an interview on Tuesday for Wednesday’s BET News interview special “Black America Votes: The Biden Interview,” President Joe Biden said that his economic policies haven’t resonated with people “because the Republican Party and the MAGA Republicans have been opposed to it, and they’ve been beating up on it.” And because “it’s just taking time for people to see it. And the other thing is, there’s not been a very good job done about saying, this new billion-dollar bridge going over there is brought to you by Joe Biden.” But some of his policy agenda has “resonated for those who...

Grocery store prices are changing faster than ever before — literally. This month, Walmart became the latest retailer to announce it’s replacing the price stickers in its aisles with electronic shelf labels. The new labels allow employees to change prices as often as every ten seconds.“If it’s hot outside, we can raise the price of water and ice cream. If there's something that’s close to the expiration date, we can lower the price — that’s the good news,” said Phil Lempert, a grocery industry analyst. Apps like Uber already use surge pricing, in which higher demand leads to higher prices...

Washington, Arizona, Colorado, California, and Oregon would see the biggest number of stores flipped to C&S.. Kroger and Albertsons have released a list of hundreds of stores that would be divested to C&S Wholesale Grocers if federal regulators approve its proposed $24.6 billion merger deal, and the states with the largest numbers include Washington, Arizona, and Colorado. Under the proposal, Kroger and Albertsons would divest stores in Washington (124), Arizona (101), Colorado (91), California (63), Oregon (62), Illinois (35), Texas (28), Nevada (16), and Alaska (18). Several states would see 10 or fewer stores divested, including: Idaho (10), New Mexico...

President Joe Biden stubbornly refused to admit Americans' struggles with inflation might cost him the election in a rare interview Wednesday. A growing economy could inspire confidence in Biden's leadership ahead of the election, but the issue of persistent inflation could ruin that. Biden, who was in Wisconsin to tout his record on the economy and to announce an investment by Microsoft to build a factory, defended his handling of inflation.

Want more food deserts in San Francisco?Here's how you get more food deserts in San Francisco.According to Reason magazine:The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is considering a remarkable policy that would allow people to sue grocery stores that close too quickly.Earlier this week, Supervisors Dean Preston and Aaron Peskin introduced an ordinance that, if passed, would require grocery stores to provide six months' written notice to the city before closing down.Supermarket operators would also have to make "good faith" efforts to ensure the continued availability of groceries at their shuttered location, either through finding a successor store, helping residents form...

When in doubt, blame businesses for closing their doors instead of the crime that has made it unsustainable for them to operate. San Francisco might even do you one better: force the businesses to stay open anyway. One of the 11 members of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors is floating reviving a vetoed 1984 law that would force grocery stores to stay open against their will. Supervisor Dean Preston calls it a “good idea” because of the risk of “food insecurity” that comes with grocery stores closing. The law in question would require stores to give a whopping six-month notice...

Interactive Grocery Shopping List Comparing Prices During Trump Administration To Bidenomices Prices https://www.biden-mart.com/

In October 2022, I shared a big announcement in the retail world: Two massive, U.S. grocery store chains, Kroger and Albertsons, had agreed to merge, in a deal worth nearly $25 billion:CNBC:Rival grocers Kroger and Albertsons on Friday announced plans to team up.The companies said Kroger agreed to buy Albertsons for $34.10 a share in a deal valued at $24.6 billion. Albertsons shares had closed Thursday at $28.63 after surging on reports that a deal was imminent.Kroger is the second-largest grocer by market share in the United States, behind Walmart, and Albertsons is fourth, after Costco. Together, Kroger and Albertsons...

Lael Brainard: 'People are fed up with high prices,' especially for 'things that they buy on a weekly basis, groceries in particular' A top Biden economic adviser on Thursday pressed on with the administration's recent effort to go after grocery stores and food companies over elevated prices, as inflation remains a major worry for voters as November's presidential election nears. "Grocery prices, they are important to people because they pay those prices every week," said Lael Brainard, director of President Joe Biden's National Economic Council, during a news conference at a National Association for Business Economics event in Washington, D.C....

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a lawsuit to block the proposed merger between Kroger and Albertsons because of the negative ramifications he says it would have for residents, such as fewer options and higher prices. In the suit, filed on Monday, Ferguson argued that the proposed $24.6 billion merger, announced in October 2022, "will likely substantially lessen supermarket competition or tend to create a monopoly in many Washington communities," where both companies currently compete. This would likely increase prices of food and other grocery products in supermarkets offered to Washington consumers while simultaneously decreasing "the quantity and quality...

PARIS (Reuters) -Carrefour is telling customers in four European countries it will no longer sell products, such as Pepsi, Lay's crisps and 7up because they have become too costly, in the latest tug-of-war over prices between retailers and global food giants. From Thursday, shelves for PepsiCo products at Carrefour stores in France, Italy, Spain and Belgium will carry signs saying the store will no longer be stocking the brands "due to unacceptable price increases", a spokesperson for the French supermarket giant said. Carrefour's move impacts more than 9,000 stores across the four countries, amounting to two-thirds of the retailer's global...

As the United States strives to regain a sense of normalcy after the pandemic, a growing financial concern is looming over the nation. According to Bloomberg, the cost of living has surged in various aspects, with groceries marking a 25% increase, used cars seeing a staggering 35% climb, and rents escalating by approximately 20%. While daily routines may have returned to a semblance of pre-pandemic normalcy, the financial burden on Americans is far from abating. A recent CNBC report reveals that a staggering 74% of Americans are currently experiencing stress due to their financial situations. The reasons behind this financial...

After being left alone for the holidays, eight-year-old Kevin McCallister famously went grocery shopping in the 1990 classic "Home Alone," purchasing a large haul of food and everyday household items for under $20. With today's prices, however, McCallister would need a lot more in his piggy bank and Americans are taking notice. Items including a half gallon of milk, a half gallon of orange juice, a TV dinner, bread, frozen mac and cheese, laundry detergent, cling wrap, toilet paper, a pack of army men and dryer sheets cost the character, played by Macaulay Culkin, $19.83. Last year, the same grocery...

We keep hearing that inflation is down, lower than a year ago or in the right direction or some other explanation like that. It's about what you'd hear from a White House managing a bad message. And then mom goes to the grocery store and comes home shaking her head and looking at the bill. This is when inflation goes from being a news story to a family conversation. This is from Steve Cortes: In fact, the latest survey results from the battleground swing states of America finds that food insecurity is a foremost worry of American citizens. My organization,...