Who’s To Blame For $7.99 Eggs?

Greedy corporations are to blame for high grocery prices.

Or maybe global supply chain disruptors like avian flu, drought in West Africa, and the war in Ukraine are most at fault.

Or maybe we should point the finger at too few workers willing to put in an honest day on the job.

A U.S. Congressperson, a food industry rep, and the owner of a local specialty foods market in East Rock offered those three theories Monday morning during a press conference about sky high food prices, and what to do about it. 

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro led the presser, alongside Attorney General William Tong, on the front patio of Nica’s Market at 603 Orange St., where a dozen eggs cost $7.99 these days.

The catalyst for the presser was that, over the last four years, food prices have risen by 25 percent, according to the Consumer Price Index. ​“I’m shocked by how much families today are really struggling to afford basic groceries,” DeLauro said.

All three recognized that the high price of groceries is a major problem. What facts to focus on when identifying the causes of that problem and what proposals to look to to help solve it, meanwhile, revealed just how thorny the political and economic challenges of inflation can be. 

DeLauro focused her remarks on Monday on how and why corporations are at fault for the high cost of food.

One of the ​“major factors” in that 25-percent, four-year spike, she said, is that ​“large grocery stores exploit product shortages” to increase their profits by jacking up prices. She said that major food producers like Cargill – which posted $177 billion in revenue last year – and Tyson have such a large control of the market that they too can prioritize corporate profits at the expense of customer wellbeing.

Companies have ​“used inflation as a cover for their own greed,” she said. Plus, the U.S. has a third fewer grocery stores now than it did 25 years ago. ​“This is the issue of consolidation” and ​“market power.” When a handful of companies control ​“80 percent of dozens of grocery items,” she said, they can drive up prices for the sake of profits.

Meanwhile, wages are not keeping up with prices. ​“It is time for government to act.”

She called on the federal government to continue to ​“fight corporate mergers,” and to provide necessary funding to the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to challenge ​“corporate mega-mergers” like that between Kroger and Albertson’s. ​“Give regulators the tools they need to go toe to toe” with these companies, she said. 

She also noted her support for the full funding of the Women, Infant, & Children’s (WIC) social benefits program, as well as her past successful advocacy for an expanded child tax credit. 

During his time at the mic, Wayne Pesce, the president of the Connecticut Food Association, gently pushed back on DeLauro’s corporate critique.

“There are a variety of factors” that contribute to high grocery prices that go beyond corporate greed, he said.

For one, ​“there’s an avian flu out there, folks.” When birds get sick, that affects the price of eggs. 

And, cocoa prices. ​“Cocoa is through the roof right now,” he said, in large part because of a drought in West Africa.

Then there’s the war in Ukraine, he continued, which has ​“affected grain prices.”

“This is a very complex situation.”

Giuseppe ​“Joe” Sabino, the long-time co-owner of Nica’s, offered still another take on high prices at the grocery store — and on the challenges of running a market like his.

“We have a hard time finding people to come in looking for jobs, work,” he said. ​“The people, they just don’t come in.” He said he’s had a ​“Help Wanted” sign on the store’s door ​“steady” in recent years, but to no avail.

He said people these days ​“don’t have a good ethic for working. They don’t want to work. I don’t know why. After 36 years in this business, the past three, four, five years is the worst I’ve ever seen. We have a hard time finding people to come in and work.”

As a result, Sabino continued, he’s working seven days a week — coming in early to cut meat and put it in the display cases. 

“They come in and say, ​‘How much you pay?’,” Sabino said. ​“Show me what you can do. … If you hold the broom, then I give you $15. If you can cut meat, then I give you $25. It’s up to them.”

Sabino said that, when he came to the United States as a young man, he worked three jobs at once. ​“I never look at the guy and say, ​‘The other guy is doing very little, I do less.’ No, I do more than the other guy. I never watched the other guy. That’s why I had success in this country. Because over here, they give you the opportunity to work and make money and make a living and success.”