(Editor’s Note: Hy-Vee was offered a last-minute exclusive interview with SpokenFood today, before publication of this story. The company declined to participate–see below. -SN)
Over the past two weeks, SpokenFood reached out to numerous wholesale food distributors representing retail grocery stores, namely the ones pictured above. We asked the question everyone in America has been wondering:
“Why do your food prices keep rising?”
SpokenFood is calling the alleged conspiracy “WalletGate.” We recently researched ‘Food-At-Home’ costs from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) as part of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). We put their numbers side-by-side on a chart with updated diesel fuel prices. See that chart below. Sorta jumps out at you, doesn’t it?
The Record of Silence
In the course of reporting this story, SpokenFood contacted those four distributors. Their replies became a pattern—one of silence, delay, and even outright error-in-fact. Each was documented and some even tried to disparage the data. McLane Company, UNFI and AWG did not respond, despite numerous, repeated attempts to obtain information. It paints a disturbing picture. Why they won’t answer the question why food prices have risen upwards of 50%-60% since Covid, while diesel prices have stabilized, remains a mystery.
You hear something once, you dismiss it. Same with two times. Four times is a confirmation that these distributors are part of a massive suspicion from U.S. consumers (some have even called it a conspiracy) to keep food costs rising to a certain breaking point, a situation which would undoubtedly affect poorer Americans first. These four obviously believe that silence is integrity; far from it. Silence, alongside the silence of the mainstream media on the subject, is far-and-gone from “forthright.”
The Call History
For reasons of journalistic integrity, we will not name the specific individuals to whom we reached out or corresponded with, but these are the companies and their reach in the food industry, and we are simply stating information that can be easily obtained otherwise:
McLane Company – Restaurant chains supplied by McLane Foodservice are part of the Yum! Brands corporation: Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut. They provide or have provided food to Sonic Drive-In, Buffalo Wild Wings, Arby’s, Del Taco, Denny’s, Jack in the Box, Hardee’s, Applebee’s and El Pollo Loco. This is massive dollars in annual revenue. Note: We reached out to McLane the most times of any company in this story, specifically to one manager and a senior-level manager…at least seven times. No one replied. McLane’s Carrolton, TX main switchboard is (254) 771-7500.
United Natural Foods, Inc./UNFI – Reported revenues of $27 Billion in 2024. Notable brand names include Essential Everyday, Woodstock, Wild Harvest, Equaline, Tumaro’s Carb Wise Wraps, Field Day, Shoppers Value, Asian Gourmet, Culinary Circle, Stone Ridge Creamery, Mt Vikos, Super Chill, Arctic Shores, Springfield, Koyo, Bio Pac and Oasis. The UNFI corporate office is located in Providence, Rhode Island. We reached out six times to members of corporate communications and a senior management member. The UNFI corporate number is 860-779-2800.
Associated Growers of America (AWG) – Reported revenues of $11.5 Billion in 2024. Their stores are Apple Market, Cash Saver, Country Mart, Food Rite, IGA, Price Chopper, Sun Fresh and ThriftWay, among others. AWG was contacted repeatedly and did not return those requests for information. The corporate number is (913) 288-1000.
Hy-Vee Engagement
Hy-Vee Stores corporate office is based in West Des Moines, IA. is an employee-owned chain of supermarkets in the Midwestern and Southern United States, with more than 280 locations in Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin, with stores planned in Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama. A senior member of the corporate team responded to our 3rd request for information.
These were the email discussion(s) that subsequently took place.
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SF: Why do food prices keep rising? (Hy-Vee was given the Mona Lisa Graph, compiled with BLS data).
HV: “Our numbers are not included in BLS data since we are a private company.”
(Read that again, friends. That was a direct statement.)
SF: “…Hy-Vee’s prices—what your shoppers actually pay at the register—are absolutely baked into BLS data…the BLS collects prices from a cross-section of grocery stores across regions, public and private alike. They don’t need Hy-Vee’s “permission” to include them; they just quietly send field agents into stores to record prices… .”
HV: “(I) thought you were asking if we report numbers from a corporate standpoint to the BLS.”
SF: “I want to know why your grocery prices keep increasing. This is the crux of our investigation. I already know your numbers are part of the BLS. I want an explanation as to why your prices keep increasing, regardless of your claims that you are one of the most affordable grocers in the Midwest. That may very well be true, but that means that your prices are less than someone else’s, not WHY they keep increasing.”
HV: (No direct answer to the question after that.)
We received an email this morning from the same senior person at the company: “If using this, it should be stated, ‘We are a private company, and do not directly report annual or monthly pricing to the BLS’.”
Yikes. Hy-Vee still doesn’t get it–the BLS doesn’t ask for numbers…they just show up. Being a “private company” has nothing to do with it. (Insert ‘eyeroll’ here). The bottom line: we still didn’t get an answer why they keep raising food prices.
Hy-Vee’s corporate number in West Des Moines, IA, is (800) 772-4098.
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Reaction and Fallout
In journalism, silence is rarely neutral. Here, it isn’t just avoidance—it’s admission. When UNFI, McLane, AWG and Hy-Vee all bury their collective heads in the sand and refuse to answer the most basic questions about food pricing, they confirm what you consumers already suspect: that something larger is being hidden in plain sight.
Rather…their silence does not close the case—it opens it wider.
There is a clear a pattern developing. Despite being given direct questions and clear parameters from SF providing ample examples to the contrary, the powers that be in BigFood don’t want you to know why they’re taking extra money at the checkout. This story isn’t going anywhere, because food isn’t a luxury…it’s a daily necessity. It is a Public Trust.
Next Steps
It’s time to get regulatory and Congress members involved, and that is the topic of our very next story. In the meantime, please reach out and ask why no one is sponsoring a “Grocery Fairness Act?” Use that very term and see what they say. If you call them, enough pressure will be applied and we’ll finally get definitive answers and action.
In the meantime, SF was contacted by an affiliate of the Charlie Kirk national radio program and asked to provide them more information. If you don’t know Charlie’s work, check it out.
–Salvatrice “Sal” Notaro, Editor-in-Chief / SpokenFood.com
Reader Action Box
This story screams for action from you:
Want answers?
Here’s how you can reach the distributors we contacted:
– McLane Company: (254) 771-7500
– UNFI: 860-779-2800
– Hy-Vee: (800) 772-4098
– AWG: (913) 288-1000Call them. Ask the same question we did: Why do your food prices keep rising? -SN
Sources: Wikipedia, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Environmental Information Administration, Reuters