A first-term House Republican from Ohio, who operates a small chain of grocery stores, expressed concern that Vice President Kamala Harris’ grocery price control proposal could negatively impact family-owned businesses like his.
Kamala Harris’ price control policy would destroy thousands of family-owned grocery stores like mine all across the country.
Price controls have never worked. Anywhere. https://t.co/GalGbU8trq
— Michael Rulli (@michaelrulli) August 24, 2024
“We’re dealing with a lot. The net profit in grocery stores is about one and a half [percent] — if you’re doing really good, one and three quarters. Just in layman’s terms, it’s about a $1.50 for every $100 that you go through the registers. And what we’ve seen in the last three to four years has been pretty horrific,” Rep. Michael Rulli, R-Ohio, told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview.
“This will be a nail in the coffin of this industry that no one can imagine.”
Rulli, who won a special election in June to replace retired Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, is now raising concerns about the impact of Vice President Kamala Harris’ grocery price control proposal on family-owned businesses.
Before his election to Congress, Rulli was a Republican state senator and played a key role in managing Rulli Bros., the mid-sized grocery chain founded by his father in 1917.
To explain what effect he argues price controls will have on his business, Rulli held up a bottle of Tide laundry detergent made by Procter & Gamble.
“If the Harris administration tells Procter & Gamble, which is based in Cincinnati, that this Tide right here that I’m selling today for $4.99 has to stay $4.99 for the next four years, what will happen is that Procter & Gamble will just simply choose not to make this product,” Rulli said. “And so that’s going to happen a lot.”
He highlighted the bar code, or stock keeping unit (SKU), which identifies individual products, noting that his stores manage 38,000 different SKUs, compared to larger grocery chains that carry even more.
“Well, why would that matter to your viewers? It’s going to matter to your viewers, because this is the luxury of living in the United States of America, where the average blue-collar worker, Joe Bag of Donuts, would have an opportunity to buy some nice things in life,” Rulli said.
“What will happen in four years of a Harris administration is those 38,000 SKUs will go all the way down to 5,000 SKUs, and you will be living in Cuba or Venezuela.”
His comments come as Harris begins rolling out her radical presidential platform, with approximately three months remaining until the November election.
Food Store CEO Debunks Kamala Harris’ Price-Gouging Claim (Video) https://t.co/1VM4Gnn3By
— The Gateway Pundit (@gatewaypundit) August 24, 2024