During the pandemic, Corporate America jacked up prices on all kinds of consumer
goods.

* From fresh fruits and vegetables to corn chips and breakfast cereal, from
soup and soda pop to aluminum foil and toilet paper, prices seemed to go up
with every trip to the grocery store.

* These price hikes were due in part to supply chain disruptions. But Big
Business imposed price increases of their own on top of that.

* Meanwhile — not content just to raise prices — companies have also been
reducing how much of their product we actually get in the package. This is
known as “shrinkflation,” and it’s a trend we’ve been seeing for years.

* President Biden called out corporations for their sneaky and greedy
shrinkflation tactics in his State of the Union Address last week.

* This all adds up: Federal Reserve data shows that from 2020 to 2022,
corporate profits increased by 75%.

Big Business has been using supply chain issues that were temporary — and which
have been resolved — as an excuse to charge us more and give us less. This is
just straight-up price gouging.

And corporations inflating their profits at our expense isn’t even the end of
the story here. There’s a dangerous political component as well. The
understandable frustration with everyday prices has a lot of Americans doubting
the strength of our economy — despite historically good news on an array of
economic metrics. Right-wing politicians and propaganda outlets like Fox “News”
are feeding and exploiting that doubt to promote their regressive policies.

A bill just introduced in Congress would give the Federal Trade Commission and
each state’s attorney general the power to crack down on shrinkflation.

Tell Congress: [[link removed]]

Corporate price gouging and shrinkflation are hurting American families every
day and masking real progress with our nation’s economy. Pass the Shrinkflation
Prevention Act of 2024 , introduced by Senator Bob Casey, without delay.
[[link removed]]

Click to add your name now. [[link removed]]

Thanks for taking action.

For progress,

- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen


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