In late November, the Federal Trade Commission announced a wide probe into the grocery industry, asking nine key players to provide 'detailed information to help the FTC shed light on the causes behind ongoing supply chain disruptions and how these disruptions are causing serious and ongoing hardships for consumers and harming competition in the U.S. “It is a supply-and-demand-driven market, and so to suggest that there’s manipulation or taking advantage, I just don’t agree with it,” CEO Dave MacLennan told Bloomberg this week. Major beef processor Cargill denied the White House claims that there was insufficient competition in the market. The White House says it is using what tools it has to “crack down on some of the bad behavior,” citing “a lot of evidence” that meat processors, who stand between farmers and grocery retailers, are “putting out price increases that are way above the costs they are incurring” due to inflation, according to a senior White House official. The argument goes that if there were more robust competition, then any retailer who tried to raise prices in excess of costs would lose business to cheaper rivals. The group has been advocating for policymakers to make use of their tools to intervene, such as enforcement actions, taxation, competitive investments, increasing labor rights, and flexing anti-trust laws to bring prices down. “The real culprits behind rising prices at the checkout line are extractive private actors who have created knife-edge supply chains ill-equipped to handle fluctuations in demand,” said Rakeen Mabud, managing director of policy and chief economist at Groundwork Collaborative, a Washington, D.C.-based progressive think tank. But critics charge they also created an opportunity. Supply chain snarls, labor shortages, and surges and shifts in consumer demand have stressed production and distribution channels over the past 18 months, raising costs for producers and retailers. 'Grocers are doing everything they can to absorb these cost increases, and we ask consumers to continue working with us as we recalibrate our supply chains.' 'Current price increases are due to a combination of supply chain challenges - from labor and transportation shortages to higher fuel costs and increased consumer demand,' FMI, the Food Industry Association, a trade association representing largely food retailers and wholesalers, said in a statement released to NBC News.

The stores did not immediately respond to an NBC News request for comment. “It is disappointing that you chose not to put your customers and workers first.” “Your companies had a choice: They could have retained lower prices for consumers and properly protected and compensated their workers, or granted massive payouts to top executives and investors,” Warren wrote to the grocery chains heads. In June 2021, Kroger announced a $1 billion stock buyback program, in late 2020 Albertsons a $300 million stock buyback program, and Publix increased quarterly dividends during the first nine months of 2021 by over $70 million.

Publix food processing methods