Are We at War with Grocery Stores Now?

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In the aftermath of the pandemic, there were certain political circles that seemed to blame the high rates of inflation on corporations, and in particular grocery stores. Brian and I wrote a lot about these arguments at the time. I must admit that I assumed that this was a temporary phenomenon. Inflation was high. People were mad. People wanted to blame someone for higher prices. In the absence of broad economic understanding or analysis, it didn’t seem all that surprising that arguments like this would pop up. High rates of inflation tend to create costs that are avoided at lower rates of inflation. This was a major theme of Axel Leijonhufvud’s work on inflation. As inflation slowed, I figured that this trend would decline along with it.I was wrong. People really seem to be mad at grocery stores and policymakers in certain parts of the country seem intent on figuring out ways to punish them.What is Going on in Washington?Politicians in the state of Washington seem particularly upset with grocery stores. A recent story in the Seattle Times summarizes what is going on there. In short, there is an exodus of retail stores from Seattle and the surrounding area. Fred Meyer, a chain operated by Kroger, announced it is closing five stores. This comes in the aftermath of smaller stores like Rite Aid announcing closings of stores in the area as well.The stores say that they are leaving because of regulatory costs and rampant shoplifting that are raising their costs and making stores unprofitable. Critics claim that these stores took advantage of the pandemic to raise prices and that…