{"id":78164,"date":"2026-09-04T01:34:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T05:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=78164"},"modified":"2026-09-04T01:34:28","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T05:34:28","slug":"major-retailers-including-walmart-and-publix-are-being-investigated-over-meat-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/09\/04\/major-retailers-including-walmart-and-publix-are-being-investigated-over-meat-prices\/","title":{"rendered":"Major retailers, including Walmart and Publix, are being investigated over meat prices"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) expanded its antitrust investigation into beef affordability to include eight of the country&#8217;s largest grocery retailers.<sup><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img data-dominant-color=\"6d5e52\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #6d5e52;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1408\" height=\"768\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Gemini_Generated_Image_315y0o315y0o315y.webp?fit=1024%2C559&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-78165 not-transparent\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Gemini_Generated_Image_315y0o315y0o315y.webp 1408w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Gemini_Generated_Image_315y0o315y0o315y-300x164.webp 300w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Gemini_Generated_Image_315y0o315y0o315y-766x418.webp 766w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Gemini_Generated_Image_315y0o315y0o315y-1024x559.webp 1024w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Key Details of the Investigation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Retailers Named:<\/strong> Letters requesting detailed data were sent to <strong>Walmart, Publix, Kroger, Costco, Amazon, Albertsons, Aldi, and Ahold Delhaize USA<\/strong> (parent company of Giant Food, Food Lion, and Stop &amp; Shop).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Information Requested:<\/strong> Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward requested data on pricing strategies, profit margins, costs, wholesale purchases from meatpackers, and pricing analyses dating back to 2020.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Initial Focus:<\/strong> The DOJ probe began with a criminal investigation targeting the &#8220;Big Four&#8221; meatpackers\u2014Tyson Foods, JBS USA, Cargill, and National Beef\u2014which process roughly 85% of U.S. beef. It was launched following directives to examine potential price manipulation, supply restrictions, and collusion.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Legal Status:<\/strong> Expanding the inquiry to grocers allows federal investigators to analyze the full supply chain. Being named in this inquiry indicates federal scrutiny, not formal charges of wrongdoing against the retailers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Broader Market Context<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ground beef prices reached a record average of <strong>$6.89 per pound<\/strong>, up around 10% year-over-year.<sup><\/sup> Beyond potential market manipulation, industry experts point to underlying structural supply issues:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The U.S. cattle herd shrank to roughly 86.2 million head\u2014its smallest size in over 70 years\u2014driven by prolonged drought, elevated feed costs, and import restrictions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) expanded its antitrust investigation into beef affordability to include eight of the country&#8217;s largest grocery retailers. Key Details of the Investigation Broader Market Context&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDlcL0dlbWluaV9HZW5lcmF0ZWRfSW1hZ2VfMzE1eTBvMzE1eTBvMzE1eS53ZWJwP2ZpdD0xMDI0JTJDNTU5JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiTWFqb3IgcmV0YWlsZXJzLCBpbmNsdWRpbmcgV2FsbWFydCBhbmQgUHVibGl4LCBhcmUgYmVpbmcgaW52ZXN0aWdhdGVkIG92ZXIgbWVhdCBwcmljZXMiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.WOi2hPcDx4rt2RnvEQ3Sj9bj2Q-wPte8OhK7jZ4VPTQMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDlcL0dlbWluaV9HZW5lcmF0ZWRfSW1hZ2VfMzE1eTBvMzE1eTBvMzE1eS53ZWJwP2ZpdD0xMDI0JTJDNTU5JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiTWFqb3IgcmV0YWlsZXJzLCBpbmNsdWRpbmcgV2FsbWFydCBhbmQgUHVibGl4LCBhcmUgYmVpbmcgaW52ZXN0aWdhdGVkIG92ZXIgbWVhdCBwcmljZXMiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.WOi2hPcDx4rt2RnvEQ3Sj9bj2Q-wPte8OhK7jZ4VPTQMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[16754,16753],"class_list":["post-78164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional-and-world-news","tag-being-investigated-over-meat-prices","tag-major-retailers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78164"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78166,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78164\/revisions\/78166"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}