While the COVID-19 pandemic dealt a blow to many parts of the economy, one sector saw record-breaking profits: the grocery industry. Americans, however, faced rising food costs and widespread shortages of some staples. And while the cost of meat shot up, prices paid to farmers actually declined, spurring a federal investigation. Most atro-ciously, frontline workers who stocked grocery shelves or worked in meat processing plants sickened and died from COVID-19.
Just four companies took in an estimated two- hirds of all grocery sales in 2019, the year before the pandemic hit. Walmart alone gobbles up $1 out of every $3 spent at grocery retailers.
The rise in supercenters and supermarket chains coincides with a steep decline in the actual number of grocery stores — a roughly 30 percent loss from 1994 to 2019. The trend is toward fewer but much larger stores, including a surge in those employing 100 or more employees.
Food & Water Watch surveyed 55 grocery catego-ries and found that just eight can be called highly competitive markets. In fact, over a third exceed the “highly concentrated” threshold used by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in merger reviews Kraft-Heinz’s 2015 merger made the conglomerate a corporate powerhouse. It is among the top companies in one-fifth of all food categories we surveyed. General Mills, Conagra and Campbell Soup Company also topped multiple food categories.
Supermarkets might present a facade of variety and choice, but chances are you are choosing between just a handful of companies for each supermarket item
— source foodandwaterwatch.org (pdf) | NOV 2021