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The state of Pennsylvania had the highest increase in grocery prices over the last year, according to a report from Consumer Affairs. Overall, grocery prices in the U.S. have gone up 5.3% year-over-year, but grocery inflation has varied from state to state. Consumer Affairs, a customer review and consumer news platform, partnered with market intelligence provider Datasembly and looked at grocery price data in 15 categories, covering 150,000 stores in all 50 states and in Washington D.C. According to the data, the commonwealth has experienced the biggest hike in grocery prices, seeing an 8.2% increase in 2023 alone. Vermont (7%),...

The price of eggs has skyrocketed in recent months, up 138% year-over-year last month. A dozen eggs now averages about $4.25, due in part to avian flu, which is tearing through poultry farms across the U.S.—wiping out some 58 million birds in the last year. But there’s another culprit, says a farm advocacy group: price gouging. America’s largest egg producer saw a 600% jump in profits in the last quarter... ...“Avian flu is not manufactured—it’s real,” says Joe Maxwell, the co-founder of Farm Action. “But the dominant firms are using that supply chain disruption to gouge the consumers...” ...Overall, U.S....

<p>By WSBTV.com News Staff April 15, 2022 at 10:49 am EDT ATLANTA — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a state of emergency in reaction to ongoing supply chain disruptions. The order goes into effect Saturday.</p><p>The order prohibits price gouging of goods and services, including gasoline.</p>

A New Jersey auto dealer is selling a new Ford Bronco for a staggering 43 percent above the manufacturer’s suggested retail price, as inflation reaches historic levels and auto inventory shortages wreak havoc on consumer wallets. “We are going to be like Cuba soon,” said one customer at All American Ford in Old Bridge, NJ. “No new cars and we’ll all be driving ’57 Chevys.” A New York City man expressed his truckin’ outrage on social media this week after he found a 2021 Ford Bronco at the Old Bridge dealer with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $34,855 being...

CARACAS, May 18 (Reuters) - Venezuelan officials and soldiers inspected a warehouse of U.S. agribusiness giant Cargill Inc [CARGIL.UL] on Wednesday as part of a crackdown on alleged hoarding and price-gouging with foodstuffs. ... With Venezuelans complaining of oil, flour, meat and other shortages in recent days, Chavez over the weekend urged ministers to hunt speculators and said he would have no hesitation in expropriating any companies found guilty. Government officials, together with armed National Guard members, found 148 tonnes of food oil at the Cargill warehouse in Caracas during Wednesday’s operation. “We are checking how oil reaches black market...

A House panel is demanding documents from a pair of online businesses as part of an inquiry into whether they pushed what it calls ineffective and dangerous coronavirus treatments, according to letters made public Friday. According to a letter signed by Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, the telemedicine provider SpeakWithAnMD.com has collected millions of dollars in fees... through referrals from America’s Frontline Doctors (AFLD), a separate business that is also a subject of the congressional investigation. Clyburn said he is concerned that the two companies are endangering lives while profiting from...

Oil and gas supplier Enterprise Products Partners on Monday sued CPS Energy, a Texas gas and power utility, alleging failure to pay nearly $100 million for natural gas delivered during the state’s February winter storm. The lawsuit is the latest to emerge from a severe cold snap that drove prices and demand for natural gas and electricity to hundreds of times their pre-storm levels. Houston gas prices https://bit.ly/3noiRVL hit $400 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) from about $4.50/mmBtu a week earlier. Enterprise is suing San Antonio municipal utility CPS Energy over payment disputes for sales during the freeze. The...

Pfizer is looking to turn its lucrative coronavirus vaccine into an even bigger cash cow. The drugmaker sees a “significant opportunity” to charge more for the groundbreaking shot once it gets to the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic, one top executive says. Pfizer set the current prices for the vaccine it developed with its German partner, BioNTech, based on the need for governments to secure doses and get the virus under control, according to chief financial officer Frank D’Amelio. For instance, Pfizer is charging the US government $19.50 per dose — well below the $150 or $175 per dose...

Amazon said in a letter to investigators on Thursday that more than 6,000 seller accounts were suspended due to price gouging amid the CCP virus pandemic. The company’s CEO, Jeff Bezos, said the firm also removed more than 500,000 listings on its website for price gouging. “Amazon turned over information about sellers we suspect engaged in price gouging of products related to COVID-19 to 42 state attorneys general offices,” Bezos wrote in a filing. “To accelerate our response to price-gouging incidents, we created a special communication channel for state attorneys general to quickly and easily escalate consumer complaints to us.”...

I'm not sure whether COVID-19, first identified in Wuhan, China, in the U.S. qualifies as a true disaster. Putting the disease in perspective, we might look at current influenza illnesses. According to Centers for Disease Control estimates, between Oct. 1, 2019, and March 14, 2020, there have been 390,000 to 710,000 hospitalizations as a result of the flu, 38,000,000 to 54,000,000 flu illnesses and 23,000 to 59,000 flu deaths. That's compared with, as of March 27, a total of 85,356 cases of COVID-19 resulting in the deaths of 1,246 people. But let's agree that COVID-19 is a disaster and ask...

ll. What started as an early morning call with a friend to help get N95 masks to hospitals in desperate need turned into a roller coaster of contacts in a frenzied, pandemic-driven market. For the next 10 hours, I sat in on calls between brokers selling masks and potential buyers, watching the psychology of market pressures play out in real time as millions of masks changed hands in a matter of hours. The buyers—from state government purchasing departments and hospital systems representing facilities throughout the Northeast, Midwest and California—expressed desperation for masks to protect their healthcare workers, but in the...

Baruch Feldheim, 43, is facing charges of assault and making false statements to the feds on Sunday outside his Borough Park home where he allegedly peddled and stored massive amounts of N95 respirator masks, federal officials said. Feldheim is also accused of price-gouging. On March 18, he’s suspected of selling a New Jersey doctor about 1,000 of the masks for $12,000, a markup of roughly 700 percent, authorities said. [cut] The arrest comes after President Trump claimed that some medical supplies were being swiped from New York City hospitals, which Mayor Bill de Blasio dismissed as insulting.

CANTON, Mich. (WXYZ) — Canton police say a person was attempting to sell toilet tissue at $60 a case in a parking lot. The incident happened Wednesday morning in a Meijer's parking lot. This example of price gouging comes after Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an order for tougher restrictions on businesses trying to price gouge shoppers during the coronavirus outbreak. The man who capture video of the absorbently priced tissue sale said he posted the image to social media were it was shared over 1000 times. Mike Arcuragi, the man who took the photo, says it’s ridiculous people are...

As concerns of COVID-19 spread across the United States, public health officials are advising people to wash their hands regularly. In response, people have been scooping up large loads of hand sanitizer, leaving store shelves empty and online retailers with sky-high prices set by those trying to profit on the rush. More is on the way, although it's not clear how long it will take retailers to restock. California Gov. Gavin Newsom pointed out on Twitter the shockingly high prices amid hand sanitizer mania. Newsom shared images of a 24-pack of pocket-size bottles selling for $400. "Seriously, @amazon? These prices...

Thirteen states -- Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia -- have enacted laws to combat what is seen as price gouging in the wake of natural disasters. Price gouging is legally defined as charging 10 to 25 percent more for something than you charged for it during the month before an emergency. Sellers convicted of price gouging face prison terms and fines. Price gouging in the wake of natural disasters is often seen as evil exploitation by sellers to rip off desperate customers. Let's hold off on that...

You know how good a cool shower feels when you come home from a long, sweaty run? Well that shampoo and body wash you love so much could be costing you more if you’re using products marketed towards women—a price discrimination commonly referred to as the “pink tax.” Research confirms this is a real thing. The New York City Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) compared the cost of various products sold throughout New York City and found a stark difference between the cost of products marketed to men and those marketed to women. And a 2010 Consumer Reports study found...

More than $45 million in revenue is believed to have been lost when the state suspended highway toll collections to help speed evacuations and relief efforts for Hurricane Irma, Florida's Turnpike system estimates. However, the estimated $3 million-a-day impact is not expected to hinder operations of the system or ongoing work programs, “as impacts such as toll suspensions due to a hurricane are taken into consideration during the annual budgeting process,” turnpike spokesman Chad Huff said in an email Friday. Funding 404 full-time positions, the turnpike system is budgeted at $1.57 billion for the current fiscal year, which began July...

Saturday, a KXAN crew booked a room at the Best Western Plus in Robstown, a small town 20 miles west of Corpus Christi. An internet search showed room rates for a two queen bed priced between $120 and $149 a night. But, when it came time to book the room at the hotel’s counter, that price nearly tripled. “What’s the total going to be?” reporter Wes Rapaport asked the hotel clerk. “$321.89,” the clerk responded. A few minutes of questioning ensued about why the price nearly tripled. In a video recorded conversation, the clerk admits the $289 room rates are...

Lawmakers are venting outrage over high prescription drug costs, but if Congress is looking for culprits, it might want to look in the mirror. Republican- and Democratic-controlled Congresses, and presidents of both parties, may have set the stage for the startling prices that have consumers on edge. In the last 13 years, Congress passed major legislation that expanded taxpayer-financed coverage for prescription drugs but lacked explicit mechanisms for dealing with costs, instead relying mainly on market forces. […] “The history we see over and over again is that when the government steps in as a guaranteed payer without regard to...

Martin Shkreli, who drew national scorn for hiking the cost of a life-saving drug 4,000 percent overnight, has been arrested, according to multiple reports early Thursday.The 32-year-old founder and CEO of Turing Pharmaceutical made headlines in September for raising the price of Daraprim, often used to treat HIV and AIDS patients, from $13.50 per pill to $750 per pill after buying the rights to the drug.His arrest is reportedly not related to that price increase.Shkreli is accused of illegally taking stock from a biotechnology firm he launched in 2011 called Retrophin Inc., Bloomberg reported, and using it to pay off...