Campaigners accuse corporations of profiting off the suffering of the American people. Inflation, the pandemic, and supply chain issues are the avenues by which multinationals dug deeper into the everyday man's pocket.
Campaigners allege firms are using the economic woes to hike up prices.
"The recent earnings calls have only reinforced the familiar and unwelcome theme that corporations did not need to raise their prices so high on struggling families," Kyle Herrig, president of the advocacy organization Accountable.Us, told The New York Times.
"The calls tell us corporations have used inflation, the pandemic and supply chain challenges as an excuse to exaggerate their own costs and then nickel and dime consumers."
According to campaigners, PepsiCo raised the costs of its most popular product while increasing its profits by millions. The corporation's profit for the third quarter of 2022 grew by 20%.
In the U.S., average food prices increased by 11.2% from September 2021 to September 2022.
Cereal and bakery foods saw an increase of 16.2% during that same period; meat, poultry, fish and eggs increased by 9%, while dairy increased by 10.4%.
A dozen eggs, on average, cost $2.90 compared to $1.83 a year ago. A two-liter bottle of soda increased by 49 cents to $2.17. A bag of chips now averages $6.05 — a $1 increase from the year before.
Experts say people are turning to junk food to cut back and save.
The Labor Department states the average candy bar cost increased by 13%, with Skittles increasing 42% and Starburst 35%, according to Datasembly.
Hershey is one of few that has kept its prices as-is.
The National Retail Foundation says Halloween candy racked up $10.6 billion for 2022, compared to $10.1 billion last year.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., took to Twitter to criticize price hikes.
"While the cost of Halloween candy has surged more than 13.1% since last September, the Mars candy bar family become 44% richer during the pandemic increasing their wealth to $32.6 billion," Sanders tweeted. "The Mars family is now worth $106.8 billion. Do you know what's scary? Corporate greed."
A projection by Bloomberg claims the U.S. economy is 100% likely to fall into a recession within the following year. Previously, other economists estimated a 60% likelihood, but now it appears to be definite.
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