They’re calling it the “Stop Price Gouging in Grocery Stores Act of 2025.”
Democrat Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of Michigan launched the bill in August to prohibit retail food stores from price gouging and engaging in surveillance-based price setting practices, and for other purposes. 17 other members of Congress co-sponsor of the bill, including Yvette Clark and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, both Democrat Reps out of New York. Normally, hearing AOC’s name mentioned brings to mind Kamala Harris’ failed attempt at a grocery bill mandate during her failed presidential bid, but fret not, for the bill also has Clark and both Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D-IL) on the bill. Is this encouraging? Consider Nadler and AOC, vying for the spotlight on this one, and the question answers itself.
SF reached out to both Tlaib’s office in Washington, D.C. as well as staffers for both the House Energy & Commerce and House Judiciary Committees, offering our current research and due diligence from the WalletGate stories we’ve published and most recently, our story on four major food distributors essentially refusing to answer why their prices continue to rise without interruption.
While the bill addresses the pricing issue at the retail level, there is concern it won’t be addressed at the distributor/supplier levels, where most of the SF focus has been these past months, particularly those three major distributors–UNFI, Associated Grocery Wholesalers and McLane Company–all of whom refused to answer price gouging allegations despite numerous attempts at contact. A senior member at Hy-Vee Stores who did respond, gave false and misleading information on BLS statistics when questioned.
The status of the bill at this early stage is due diligence, while they assemble the information to be presented at both House Judiciary and House Energy and Commerce subcommittee meetings. Whether or not the four distributors (or numerous other large food suppliers) will be subpoenaed to testify on their alleged price gouging practices remains to be seen.
––Harper Nash