A SpokenFood.com Exclusive by Salvatrice Notaro | August 15, 2025
Who’s To Blame?
In the 1970’s, the United States government, including the President of the United States, Richard Nixon himself, conspired to lie to the American people about a political cover-up that became known as the Watergate scandal. In the food distribution world, since the end of the Covid era–beginning in 2022–we at SpokenFood.com have uncovered an equally disturbing trend with massive national effect, even possible government implications.
We’re calling it WalletGate.
After years of “post-Covid B.S.,” the excuses from grocers and restaurant owners are becoming clear. As mud. It is beginning to reveal a dark suspicion beneath why our food has become so damned expensive: no one has a straight answer.
Here’s the truth: behind the scenes, secrecy rules. Unwritten policies—alleged but never acknowledged publicly in the food supply chain—seemingly come straight from the food distributor executives who supply the grocers and restaurants we rely on. Are they pulling the strings, and we’re footing the bill? Something has to explain these large increases.
It’s time for you, the consumer, to change the narrative.
Our food supply is a public utility—an absolute necessity, not a luxury.
Just like water, power, gas, or public transit, food is essential—yet it’s being treated as a profit playground, siphoning off extra dollars from wallets, purses, and Venmo accounts without justification.
At SpokenFood.com, we are reframing the price-gouging debate. This is where real change begins.
Most people think of food as a commodity—just another product you buy, priced by the market. Pay up or go hungry. End of story. Not so.
Do this now: start thinking of your grocery bill as you do your electric bill or gas or phone service—vital infrastructure, governed by rules, limits, and accountability. Your grocery store is your food supply. Think they can just raise rates whenever they want? (Answer: they are but they shouldn’t.)
Your food got to your local restaurant or grocery store via a national distribution chain—just like your utilities. While your energy rates are regulated, why aren’t your food costs?! They spike every, single month. And it’s not getting better.
Distributors are reporting millions in profit.
So ask yourself:
• Can a power company raise your bill during a heat wave?
• Can a pharmacy jack up insulin prices during the holidays?
• Can a water utility triple your rate because of “supply chain pressures”?
The answers are: “No. No. And hell no.”
So why are grocers and distributors allowed to hike prices with vague, often disproven excuses—like fuel costs for trucks? Because it’s possible some of them are greedy and they’ve been allowed to operate this way, unchecked.
➡ A Yum Brands restaurant employee, who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly, said their managers routinely cite gas prices when explaining higher food costs.
➡ A grocery employee supplied by United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI) echoed the same explanation: fuel costs. But UNFI itself did not respond to three emails and two phone calls to company managers and vice presidents seeking comment.
For those conspiring parties: This is the very definition of price-gouging.
Congress, the FTC, and many state attorneys general have seemingly turned a blind eye since prices began spiking after COVID. Some claim it’s part of doing business in America. Others exclaim loudly they’re “doing everything they can!” None of this is getting any traction. The truth is this: someone’s getting paid (and it ain’t you).
You want proof? Look at the chart below. We call it the Mona Lisa Graph.
(Note: The editor-in-chief cried out “Holy, Sh*!” the first time she saw it.)
We reached out to the largest food distributors in America for comment – shortly, we’ll begin outlining who we’ve spoken to, what their reactions were – and most importantly – did this reaction mirror an honest attempt to keep prices at bay?
➡ Some declined to comment entirely. Others pushed back, playing the default “gas card” and even calling the graph a distortion—never mind the fact that they are required by law to report their own numbers to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. We pulled the data straight from the BLS and EIA – which is to say, from their own ledgers, so to speak.
In the coming days and weeks, we’re going to start naming names and possibly giving you contacts, all with one goal in mind: Pressure. Big-time, hard-hitting, never-ending pressure – from SF and from you – on the food supply chain execs and on any public official who has sway in these matters. That means Congress and that means regulatory channels like the FTC.
Make no mistake. This has all the earmarks of a conspiracy, to take your money without legitimate reason. We at SF feel your pain, because we have to eat, just like you…and we’re done messing around. Stick with us here at SpokenFood. We’ll keep you informed every step of the way.
A conspiracy looms, it appears, one of greed and shady money movement, as rancid and shameless as that American scandal from 50 years ago. Are they doing it again? Just remember the name: WalletGate. –SN
** There are those who attempt to pour water on the “food supply conspiracy theory.” One of them is that “food production plants and facilities aren’t being intentionally burned down. We’ll debunk that bad-boy next, with numbers.
Numbers don’t lie.