A week after Thanksgiving in 2022, South Dakota was hit by one of those howling snowstorms that are particular to this part of the country. The roads were treacherous, and it wouldn’t have been surprising if our visitor from Washington, D.C., decided to reschedule.
He didn’t.
Alvaro Bedoya, then the newest commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission, not only kept his appointment to tour an independent grocery store on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation, but he also stayed far longer than originally agreed. He listened respectfully and patiently as members of the community shared concerns that extended far beyond his government’s mandate, taking notes and promising to follow up.
I was beyond impressed back then and pleasantly surprised when he kept his word after he returned to our nation’s capital.
A few weeks ago, Bedoya sued the Trump administration. President Trump fired Bedoya and the FTC’s other Democratic commissioner, Rebecca Slaughter, breaking with the long-held tradition that political appointees to independent government agencies can only be dismissed for cause.
Based on my knowledge and experience, Bedoya didn’t fall into any of those categories.
President Trump promised to lower grocery prices while on the campaign trail, but he sabotaged that promise by firing one of the biggest champions for rural grocers and supporters of antitrust enforcement that would’ve helped the president keep his word.
The purpose of Bedoya’s tour was to see the real-world results of national grocery chains using their buying power to put pressure on independent stores. The dominant players pressure suppliers to lower prices to unrealistic levels, and the rest of us end up paying the price to make up for the losses.
My family has been in the grocery business for 120 years, and it gets harder every year to compete on a playing field that’s controlled by the biggest players.
My customers on the Pine Ridge Reservation are among the poorest residents in the country. Hunger and food access are such prevalent problems in my community that I founded Team Buche Cares, a nonprofit organization focused on feeding my neighbors, as demand is so high that food banks and other charitable institutions can’t do it alone.
Some of my customers don’t even have cars, and they must pay someone to give them a lift to our store. As a result, they can’t afford to pay 20, 30 or 50 percent more than customers of the big box store, which is far beyond their reach.
The Robinson-Patman Act was passed to prohibit this kind of price discrimination and ensure that stores of all sizes have access to the same prices when purchasing the same products in the same quantities.
Commissioners Bedoya and Slaughter joined then-Chair Lina Khan just a few months ago in approving the first Robinson-Patman antitrust cases in more than four decades, in each case accusing suppliers and middlemen of succumbing to the demands of their biggest customers and charging more to smaller customers who lack the same market power.
Bedoya understood the problem because he saw it firsthand, and he spelled it out in an opinion piece he wrote for The New York Times in January “I Work at the FTC I Know What Is Killing Local Groceries.” He mentioned me by name and cited that Pine Ridge store tour from December 2022 as he made the case for enforcing Robinson-Patman.
Now that he no longer works at the FTC, I have to ask who will be fighting for my customers in Washington? Who will be looking out for rural independent grocers? Who will keep their word and help Americans who struggle to afford and access food for their families?
Sadly, it doesn’t seem like anyone in the White House took a minute to ask these questions, but I wish they had.
I personally don’t care which president or party is in charge. I understand the need to cut fat out of the government, but I would respectfully submit that the people in charge should be careful that they’re not cutting out the heart.
RF Buche is a fourth-generation grocer out of South Dakota and president of G.F. Buche Co.
