Food store CEO sets record straight on Harris' price-gouging claim
'Let the market handle pricing,' Stew Leonard Jr. says
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The CEO of a grocery chain is setting the record straight on Vice President Kamala Harris' claim over price gouging.
"I haven't met anybody price gouging." Stew Leonard Jr. told FOX Business' Elizabeth MacDonald during an interview on "The Evening Edit."
However, he noted the farmers and ranchers he has met have adjusted their prices to reflect the rise in costs.
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"Our farmers and our ranchers have been reflecting their price increases that they've had, which has elevated food prices over the last two, three years now," he noted.
"We're seeing increases, you know, like everybody who has a house or a condo or an apartment, you're seeing costs go up on fuel and energy or gas used to be around 2 or 3 bucks a gallon, it's a little higher than that now," he continued.
Leonard Jr. also mentioned how he speaks and deals with his suppliers who inform him their prices are rising.
"They're not calling me up and trying to artificially increase their prices, they're calling me because their prices are going up."
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The Harris' campaign released a document last week saying that if she's elected, her administration would work with Congress to "advance the first-ever federal ban on price gouging on food and groceries; set clear rules of the road to make clear that big corporations can't unfairly exploit consumers to run up excessive profits on food and groceries."
When it comes to the vice president's plan to fight price gouging, Leonard Jr. said, "I'm sure" there was a "small percentage" of companies who saw a "little window during COVID."
"Most of the people out there right now had to increase their prices due to their costs going up," and added that overall regulation for his business is "good" to "protect the consumer."
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As far as regulating grocery prices, Leonard Jr. said, "let the market handle pricing."
"One thing I've learned in my 50 years of retailing in our family business, if you raise prices, guess what happens to sales, they go down, you know, unless you're Gucci or Prada or something like that."
FOX Business' Eric Revell contributed to this report.
