Want to help your city and local schools stop buying from Amazon? Watch our recent webinar featuring people who successfully pushed their local governments to buy from local suppliers instead — plus practical tips for how to do it in your town.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIS3...
16/16. And join our newsletter to stay informed about new developments — including states that are passing their own Robinson-Patman laws: ilsr.org/newsletters/
15. To learn more about the Robinson-Patman Act and the history of the grocery sector, check out some of our work on the topic: ilsr.org/independent-...
14. If Muris and CEI get their way, such violations of the law will continue to run rampant, to the benefit of dominant chains and their favored suppliers — and to the detriment of local retailers, consumers, and communities.
13. The biggest tell in Muris’s latest CEI papers/webinar is that there’s no mention — zero — of the newly unsealed FTC complaint laying out how Pepsi violated Robinson-Patman by helping Walmart squeeze rivals and drive up grocery prices. That case was abandoned by the Trump FTC.
12. Today, we can see the impact of abandoning Robinson-Patman all around us: grocery and pharmacy deserts, higher prices, failing family farms, fewer opportunities for small food producers — and a handful of giant retailers and suppliers with outsized control over the market.
11. Actual history looks different. When Robinson-Patman was enforced — when chains had to win by competing on the merits instead of using their leverage over suppliers — the retail sector was more dynamic, with both independents and chains thriving.
10. Muris’s version of history served a purpose. When he & his allies moved to end enforcement of the law, they needed a story to explain the fallout. So they wrote one: independents were primitive and consumers didn’t want them; thus their disappearance was natural & inevitable.
9. Here are a few other things independent grocery stores invented during the decades when Robinson-Patman was enforced: automatic doors, shopping carts, and loyalty cards. The law protected competition. And that yielded innovation, lower prices, and stronger communities.
8. Muris also claims that independents couldn’t keep up with the chains' modern distribution systems. In fact, independents built cooperative warehousing & distribution systems that achieved the same scale efficiencies — while allowing stores to stay locally owned & independent.
7. That’s not what Census data says. In 1967, single-location independent retailers accounted for more than half of retail sales. Thanks to Robinson-Patman enforcement, shoppers had options. And most chose independents.
6. Muris also claimed in a webinar/paper last week that by the late 1960s “chain stores were victorious” — that independents were basically gone and Robinson-Patman hadn’t worked because shoppers preferred chains.
5. In fact, the modern supermarket was invented in the 1920s by multiple independent grocers experimenting in different parts of the country. It was A&P that had to scramble to catch up. Here’s the chain’s president explaining:
4. One of Muris’s myths is that the grocery chain A&P invented the modern, large-format, self-service supermarket. Here he is making that claim:
3. Muris’s core tale is always the same: chain retailers are bold innovators, while independents are backward holdovers. Muris frames Robinson-Patman as a law passed to protect local retailers from chain store “innovation.” But his “facts” don’t hold up.
2. Quick background: the 1936 Robinson-Patman Act bars large retailers from using their leverage over suppliers to secure discriminatory pricing & drive smaller retailers out of business. Muris played a key role in the government’s decision to stop enforcing the law around 1980.
1. Tim Muris, who held top roles at the FTC in the 1970s-80s and 2000s, has teamed up with the Competitive Enterprise Institute on a new effort to discredit and bury the Robinson-Patman Act.
Muris has a record of inventing history to support his agenda. Here are a few examples.
TODAY at 1:00 ET — join us to hear from leading thinkers on how powerful corporations are using pricing algorithms to fleece shoppers, and what cities, states, and the federal gov't can do about it.
It took New Mexico Democrats all of 25 days to cobble together a law that makes broadband affordable for poor people
Great event on March 3: How powerful corporations — including Amazon, Instacart, and major landlords — are using pricing algorithms to inflate prices and undermine competition. With Doha Mekki, Katie Wells, Ted Tatos, and moderator Geoffrey Fowler. Register here: ilsr.org/article/inde...
"Every time teachers post a classroom wish list on Amazon, they’re essentially voting against their next pay raise."
Terrific — and very actionable — post from my colleague @kennedysmith.bsky.social
Today! At noon Eastern. Great speakers: Arizona State Senator
Lauren Kuby (@senatorlaurenkuby.bsky.social), Gayle Shanks of Changing Hands Bookstore, Thomas Barr of Local First Arizona, and Kennedy Smith of @ilsr.bsky.social
One key reason to support local businesses? They'll have your back in a community crisis when large corporations stay silent. Some lessons from Minnesota from several of my very smart colleagues: vist.ly/4rdhr @ronmknox.bsky.social @stacyfmitchell.bsky.social
Tomorrow!
Walmart is using its power over suppliers to push grocery prices up. This terrific explainer draws on newly unsealed details from an antitrust case—filed by Lina Khan and dropped by Trump—to show how. I’m proud that @ilsr.bsky.social helped get the case unsealed. And thrilled to help tell the story.
Nearly every city and school district is pouring public dollars into Amazon — even though local suppliers are often cheaper and faster. A few cities have said no to Amazon’s sketchy contracts. This Friday: Learn how they broke free — and how your city can too. Register here:
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4. As the Walton family — which owns 50% of Walmart stock — cheers its obscene wealth of over $500 billion, remember that all that loot was stolen from small businesses, workers, and you. You are paying for this monopoly in inflated grocery prices, lower wages, food deserts, and dead main streets.
4. As the Walton family — which owns 50% of Walmart stock — cheers its obscene wealth of over $500 billion, remember that all that loot was stolen from small businesses, workers, and you. You are paying for this monopoly in inflated grocery prices, lower wages, food deserts, and dead main streets.
