Kroger’s president: “A little inflation is always good in our business”
Blaming Biden for inflation without mentioning corporate profits
It’s the same old song
From the WV GOP:
"As American families already pay $276 more per month because of Bidenflation, this double whammy to the wallet sure does hurt." https://t.co/mPoXiNN3Vd
— WVGOP (@WVGOP) February 14, 2022
From our local congressman, David McKinley:
President Biden’s Valentine to America:
— David B. McKinley (@RepMcKinley) February 14, 2022
Roses may be red, but record inflation’s got us all blue…
I’d rather be eating ice cream than fix this crisis…and by now isn't it obvious - I have no plan to! https://t.co/lC4h9nz7Ac
Notice that neither explains why it is Biden’s fault, what it is that Biden could do, or why America should be different from most of the industrialized world which is also suffering from inflation.
Why is the media ignoring the part that corporations play in inflation?
Don't drink the Kool-Aid.
— Richard Angwin (@RichardAngwin) February 11, 2022
It's not inflation when corporations are posting record profits; it's called price gouging. pic.twitter.com/7xJvF9npt9
And from Senator Barry Sanders:
The problem is not that a low-income worker got a 50 cent raise two weeks ago and a $1,400 check last year. The problem is that corporations are using "inflation" as an excuse to jack up prices so that they can make record-breaking profits to enrich CEOs and wealthy shareholders.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) February 10, 2022
An example, Chipoltle:
Corporate greed is Chipotle increasing its profits by 181% last year to $764 million, giving its CEO a 137% pay raise to $38 million in 2020 and blaming the rising cost of a burrito on a minimum wage worker who got a 50 cent pay raise. That's not inflation. That's price gouging.
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) February 11, 2022
A local example: Kroger
From the Kroger CEO in December:
For @Kroger, higher prices for us mean larger profits for them. That’s why their CEO Rodney McMullen said “a little inflation is always good in our business."
— Tax March (@taxmarch) December 8, 2021
The cost of groceries and holiday dinners are going up for one reason: corporate greed. pic.twitter.com/d9iPQyB8Gl
And from yesterday’s New York Times:
Business has boomed during the pandemic for Kroger, the biggest supermarket chain in the United States and the fourth-largest employer in the Fortune 500. It owns more than 2,700 locations, and its brands include Harris Teeter, Fred Meyer, Ralphs, Smith’s, Pick ’n Save and even Murray’s Cheese in New York City. The company, which is based in Cincinnati, said in December that it was expecting sales growth of at least 13.7 percent over two years. The company’s stock has risen about 36 percent over the past year.
And their C.E.O.:
Kroger has one of the country’s starkest gaps between a chief executive’s compensation and that of the median employee. Rodney McMullen, Kroger’s chief executive since 2014, earned $22.4 million in 2020, while the median employee earned $24,617 — a ratio of 909 to 1. The average C.E.O.-to-worker pay ratio in the S&P 500 is 299 to 1, with grocery chains like Costco (193 to 1) and Publix (153 to 1) lower than that.
As for their workers, The Nation recently reported on recent research:
A new white paper from nonprofit researchers at the Economic Roundtable called “Hungry at the Table” found her story reflected in thousands of other workers. Two-thirds of the 10,000 Kroger workers they surveyed said that they do not earn enough money to cover their basic expenses every month, with 44 percent of them reporting that they cannot pay rent and 39 percent saying they can’t afford groceries. Fourteen percent reported that they are currently experiencing homelessness or have been homeless within the past year. Eighty-five percent of the single parents surveyed are experiencing food insecurity. The 10 percent discount Kroger offers its employees must feel like an insult when they’re spending their days surrounded by food they cannot afford—and when the company’s CEO, Rodney McMullin, has seen his pay increase by 296 percent over the past decade, taking home over $22 million in 2020. Fueled by the very pandemic its workers were battling, Kroger’s profits spiked to $132.5 billion in sales during 2020, and netted $2.8 billion in profit during 2020.
Can't we find a way to blame Biden for this?
