Sizing Up the Food System: US Consumers’ Perceptions of Food System Firm Sizes and Pricing

High food prices have been on US consumers’ minds for several years now. From 2019 to 2023, the food Consumer Price Index rose by about 25%, much of which is attributed to supply chain disruptions (USDA ERS, 2023). However, as measures of inflation cool and political campaigns heat up, the public discourse about high food prices seems to have turned to companies’ pricing strategies and market power (see e.g., Bork, March 4, 2023; Henney March 1, 2024; Smialek, March 1, 2024; Smialek and Karaian, February 20, 2024; Tankersley, February 26, 2024; Picchi, February 13, 2024; Tankersley, February 1, 2024) At the federal level, for example, we recently saw the Federal Trade Commission sue to block a grocery store merger between Kroger and Albertsons – with the grocery stores saying the merger would reduce food prices and the FTC saying that the merger would raise food prices (Durbin, February 26, 2024).