A new bill proposed by Colorado lawmakers aims to prevent grocery stores and other sellers of 'necessity' goods from raising prices unfairly. The bill would expand an existing law that prohibits price gouging during disasters to cover a broader range of products and situations. It would also allow the Attorney General's Office or local district attorneys to investigate price hikes.
Safeway grocery store checkers Cody Appleby, left, and Gabe Stackpole, right, bag an order for a customer at a Lone Tree store on March 26, 2020. Colorado grocery stores and other sellers of “necessity” goods would be prohibited from “unfairly or unconscionably” raising prices on their products under new legislation proposed by state lawmakers., is part of a push by lawmakers of both parties this year to address Colorado’s high cost of living.
“There’s a lot of reasons why prices go up, but greed is clearly one of those reasons,” said Rep. Yara Zokaie, a Fort Collins Democrat and the bill’s primary sponsor. “What we do see is market conditions cause prices to go up, and then you have greedy corporations that take advantage of that, and they hide behind those market conditions.”in 2020, in the early days of the pandemic. That bill covered building materials, food, fuel and emergency supplies, among other “necessities.
That trend continued into the first three quarters of 2023. The commission argued that its findings cast “doubts on assertions that rising prices at the grocery store are simply moving in lockstep with retailers’ own rising costs.”showed that food inflation remained higher than general inflation. The increase was more dramatic during the pandemic, when food prices rose nearly 8% in 12 months.
“You really have to take a holistic look at why those things are happening,” she said, “and a lot of are national factors, a lot are supply-chain issues — we’re still feeling that even this far out of COVID. Some are policy choices.”
PRICE CONTROL LEGISLATION FOOD INFLATION COLORADO ATTORNEY GENERAL GROCERY STORES
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