Demand Progress

Giant corporations have spent a few years using inflation as an excuse to raise food prices. But it’s not so-called inflation, it’s corporate greed — it’s called Greedflation.

Americans are paying 25% more on groceries and dining out this year compared to early 2020, before the pandemic.¹ And it’s not because corporations are hurting for money. PepsiCo, General Mills, Kroger, and lots of big chains jacked up prices while making record profits. The 10 largest grocery and restaurant corporations are sending $77 billion to shareholders.² Investors and CEOs rake in cash while consumers are forced to struggle with higher grocery bills. It’s a clear case of runaway corporate greed.

Congress needs to step in and punish corporations for price gouging. We need a Windfall Profits tax now to rein in this out of control Greedflation.

Sign the petition: Tell Congress to hold corporations accountable and pass a Windfall Profits Tax!

Grocery prices rose in 2022 by over 10% — the biggest increase since the 1970s. Also in 2022, people spent 11% of their disposable income on food, the highest amount in over four decades.³ See a theme? It’s not because eggs, bread, and a meal out all of a sudden became more expensive; corporations raised prices so they could make as much profits as possible — all while working people reeled during the pandemic and still to this day.

Senator Warren said recently, “Grocery prices are up because of good old-fashioned corporate price gouging. And they can gouge consumers on prices because there’s only a small number of companies controlling every level of the food chain.”⁴

The Windfall Profits Tax would place a 95% tax on a company’s profits that are in excess of their average profit level from 2015-2019⁵ — ensuring that companies aren’t taking advantage of the pandemic and price gouging to reap record profits now. It’s time to end Greedflation and lower grocery prices for working people.

Sign the petition and demand that Congress pass a windfall profits tax to curb reckless and rampant price-gouging across the country.

Sources:

1. The Lever, “Big Food, Big Profits, Big Lies,” June 3, 2024.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Office of Senator Elizabeth Warren, “At Hearing, Warren Calls Out Giant Corporations for Hiking Up Food Prices While Raking in Record Profits, Urges Action to Promote Competition and Bring Down Costs,” May 22, 2024.
5. Office of Senator Bernie Sanders, “NEWS: Sanders Introduces Legislation to Reinstate the WWII Windfall Profit Tax to Combat Rising Inequality, Inflation, and Corporate Profiteering,” March 25, 2022.