The latest installment in the Regime Media’s ongoing “Hide the Bidenomics Suck” series features a new twist: omitting an unpopular policy prescription for the underlying problem mentioned in the report.
Watch this CBS report on the proposed merger between two supermarket chains and see if you can spot what’s missing (click “expand” for transcript”):
CBS EVENING NEWS
9/4/24
6:41 PM
NORAH O’DONNELL: Tonight, there are new questions about what would be the largest grocery store merger in U.S. history. The CEOs of two major chains testified today at a trial defending Kroger's nearly $25 billion purchase of Albertsons. Federal regulators are trying to block the deal, saying it could hurt shoppers. Here is CBS's Jo-Ling Kent.
JO-LING KENT: The prices you pay at the grocery store are now under scrutiny in federal court.
SHOPPER: Nothing has gone down. It’s all going up.
SHOPPER: Things that you used to buy, like eggs, it's just gotten really expensive.
KENT: Today, the CEOs of grocery chains Kroger and Albertsons defended a proposed $25 billion merger under oath, saying the combined chains would be better positioned to compete with Walmart and Amazon. Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen promising in court, “the day that we merge is the day that we will begin lowering prices”, vowing that the combined company would invest $1 billion to lower prices if the merger goes through. The Federal Trade Commission has sued to halt this merger, alleging it would raise prices by reducing competition in some areas of the country. Is that an accurate argument?
ANTHONY DUKES: I'm not convinced of that argument. So if they are somehow able to combine their stores, some of those cost savings through their wholesale prices could be passed onto consumers.
KENT: The two chains combined operate about 5,000 stores. Currently, Walmart dominates the grocery market by dollars spent, as shoppers have faced stubborn inflation since the pandemic. Since 2019, according to the CBS "Money Watch" price tracker, a dozen eggs more than doubled. Bread jumped 54%, and chicken 33%. But wages have also risen 23%, keeping pace with overall prices.
ANALYST: But that’s not how a lot of consumers think. They just see that grocery bill at the end and they are like, “oh, my gosh, this is so expensive”. And they are right.
KENT: Now earlier in this hearing a Kroger senior director admitted that the grocery giant had raised prices for eggs and milk beyond inflation levels for a period of time, but since then, the CEO of Kroger has insisted prices would come down if these two chains are able to merge. Norah.
O’DONNELL: Everyone watching that very closely. Jo-Ling Kent, thank you so much.
It is oddly fascinating that, in a Regime Media report about a supermarket chain merger stalling due to concerns over pricing, there is no mention of Vice President Kamala Harris’s proposal to combat high food prices via the imposition of what amounts to price controls. It wasn’t that long ago that CBS’s Margaret Brennan suggested such characterizations were “false”, but never specified how. Now, they simply get left off the report.
Food prices are the true heart of the story, as opposed to the merger proposal. The slide showing that wages are barely keeping up (if at all) with rising food costs is devastating. The real buried lede is that people still struggle with food prices. In fact, one recent CBS report suggests that an increasing number of Americans must choose between food and energy bills.
Somehow, this did not make it into the report. Also missing from the report: the fact that the grocery business is very low-margin. The report does enough sleight of hand so as to keep the viewer focused on supermarket chains without pointing out the real culprit of the increase in the price of bacon: Bidenomics.
