A Popular Idaho Grocery Store Admits to Price Gouging

From housing prices and rent to grocery and gas prices, there’s really no hiding it. Right now, life in Idaho is…expensive.

Idaho’s Housing Prices Are Insane

In July, US News & World Report updated their list of the “Most Overvalued U.S. Housing Markets.” This is a list that residents of Idaho’s capital city desperately wants off of, but we’re still sitting at #14. According to Realtor.com, the median listing price for a home in Ada County was $591,700 in July. While that’s down almost $8,000 from a year ago, that still seems out of reach for many Idahoans dreaming of owning a home in or near Boise. 

Idaho’s Rental Market Isn’t Much Better

While we’re VERY excited that our rent isn’t going up when we sign a new lease in October, that’s not the case everywhere in Boise. Apartment List’s latest rent report for Boise shows that rent has climbed another 2.7% from this time last year. Boise also ranks #73 on their list of the highest overall rent among the country’s 100 largest cities. 

Idahoans Are Feeling the Pain at the Pump

When it comes to gas prices? Idaho’s paying more at the pump than most of the country. At press time, Idaho has the 8th highest gas prices in the country with a gallon of regular costing an estimated $3.58. 

What About Food Inflation?

While groceries are still more expensive than they were before the pandemic, the good news is that for most of the year food inflation has been relatively low at about 2.15%. That’s down significantly from a record high of 11.4% in 2022. 

READ MORE: Prices Of These 9 Foods Have gone Up the Most in Idaho

What if we told you that one of the most popular grocery brands in Idaho was taking advantage of you during 2022 when food inflation was at an all time high? You probably know that right now Fred Meyer’s parent company, Kroger and Albertsons are in court in Portland, trying to move their proposed merger forward. The Federal Trade Commission is trying to stop it.  According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, the hearing is set to wrap on Tuesday, September 17.  

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Common Dreams reports that while Kroger’s senior director for pricing, Andy Groff, was testifying, he admitted that the company hiked the prices on milk and eggs more than required. During his testimony, he said the company wanted to “pass through our inflation to consumers.” Kroger was price gouging their customers on necessities when the economy was already shaky. 

According to Bloomberg, egg prices came up again while the FTC was questioning Matthew Marx, who is in charge of Kroger’s Mariano’s brand. The report showed that while Walmart was dropping egg prices, Mariano’s kept their’s higher to match the higher prices at a similar Albertsons brand called Jewel-Osco. An expert from the Competition Law Center at George Washington University tells the Cincinnati Enquirer that reveal could be a MAJOR problem for the merger. 

Bloomberg says that a Kroger spokesperson responded to the testimony with the statement: 

This cherry-picked email covers a specific period and does not reflect Kroger’s decades-long business model to lower prices for customers by reducing its margins.

While we might not have an ACTUAL Kroger in Idaho, we do have 14 stores that operate under one of their other brand names: 11 Fred Meyer and three Smith’s stores.

Remember, if the merger does move forward, the two brands will divest 579 of their stores to C&S Wholesale Grocers, that includes these 10 stores in Idaho.