NPR. This is the indicator for Planet Money. I'm Adrian Ma.

And I'm Whelan Wong.

Adrian, I don't know how often you frequent your local supermarket,

but grocery prices are not okay right now.

It's like over six bucks for a family size box of Cheesets,

which, you know, that's my personal barometer for inflation.

Oh my gosh, that is a barometer of inflation that I understand.

Truthfully, I'm a cheese nips person more than a cheese hits its person.

Yeah, I think they just, they taste less healthy.

Yeah, though, that's important.

Yeah. The struggle is real though.

Grocery prices have gone up 25% since January 2020 and that's outpaced the

increase in inflation overall. Yeah, and high grocery prices aren't just an economic issue. They were a hot-button political issue.

Last month, President Biden announced that he's launching a strike force, that's literally what he's calling it to crack down on unfair or illegal

pricing by corporations. That might have been welcome news for smaller

grocery stores. They've long accused big retailers of getting an unfair advantage on pricing.

And the small grocers have their own plan to address this.

They want to dust off an antitrust law from the 1930s

that has gone unenforced for decades. It's called the Robinson-Patman Act.

Today on the show we explain what this law does, why it's back in the conversation

and whether reviving it would give consumers relief

on grocery prices.

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