Sen. Elizabeth Warren was ripped online by social media users after she claimed that supermarket chains and local grocers were causing inflation by hiking prices.
“Giant grocery store chains force high food prices onto American families while rewarding executives & investors with lavish bonuses and stock buybacks. I’m demanding they answer for putting corporate profits over consumers and workers during the pandemic,” Warren tweeted on Monday.
Giant grocery store chains force high food prices onto American families while rewarding executives & investors with lavish bonuses and stock buybacks. I'm demanding they answer for putting corporate profits over consumers and workers during the pandemic.
— Elizabeth Warren
Her tweet accompanied a letter she sent to the CEOs of the grocery chains Kroger, Albertsons, and Publix, in which she accused them of using the pandemic and growing inflation to raise prices and fleece consumers.
“Your company, and the other major grocers who reaped the benefits of a turbulent 2020, appear to be passing costs on to consumers to preserve your pandemic gains, and even taking advantage of inflation to add greater burdens,” Warren wrote.
The Daily Wire added:
During the pandemic as local and state governments shut down restaurants and bars, grocery store and supermarket sales rose as shoppers’ options were restricted by heavy-handed mandates. Kroger and Albertson’s used the opportunity to buy back stock, while Publix increased dividends to its shareholders.
Warren accused the grocery chains of choosing greed over their employees.
“Your companies had a choice: They could have retained lower prices for consumers and properly protected and compensated their workers, or granted massive payouts to top executives and investors,” Warren wrote.
“It is disappointing that you chose not to put your customers and workers first,” she said.
Her remarks and stance were blasted by several social media users, many accusing her of running cover for Democrats who have control of Congress and the White House and whose spending and economic policies have been blamed for rampant inflation.
“Some might say that Warren and her political allies were the biggest catalyst of the inflation we’re seeing now,” Chuck Ross, an investigative reporter at The Washington Free Beacon.
“This crazy human,” Daily Wire’s editor emeritus Ben Shapiro .
Pradheep Shanker, CEO of the Neoavatara Foundation, , “There was a time Warren was a serious economist, right? Because she has become a complete clown now.”
In response to the Massachusetts Democrat’s letter, food industry officials defended grocers, blaming the price spike on inflation and supply chain issues.
“Current price increases are due to a combination of supply chain challenges — from labor and transportation shortages to higher fuel costs and increased consumer demand,” FMI, the Food Industry Association said in a statement.
“Grocers are doing everything they can to absorb these cost increases, and we ask consumers to continue working with us as we recalibrate our supply chains.”
Regardless of Warren’s stance, most Americans have been blaming President Biden’s policies for inflation for months.
According to the Trafalgar Group/Convention of the States poll in June, 39% of respondents blamed Biden, while 17.7% placed the blame on former President Donald Trump.
“The poll also revealed that some voters feel Congress is to blame for rising inflation, with 14.4% blaming the current Congress, compared to 10.9% who blame the previous Congress,” the Washington Examiner reported.
Independent voters blamed Biden more than Trump as well, by a 35.5-16.9% margin, the survey said.
Inflation has soared to a 40-year high under Biden, according to a new Labor Department report released earlier this month.
The Consumer Price Index, the most closely watched inflation measure, rose to 6.8% in November, up from 6.2% in October, the latter of which was the highest level in three decades.