00:05
Every time I go to the grocery store,
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I look at the receipt girl,
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these prices they're getting out of hand,
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they just keep going up and up.
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But thankfully, we have Marlin Ramirez political content creator to tell
00:18
us a little more about who actually sets these prices and what's
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really going down or should I say up?
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Welcome, Marlene. No,
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hello. It's great to be here with me through
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I am a Latina political content creator on tiktok and Latino again
00:34
is a very political and social identity in the States and I'm
00:36
really passionate about making policy accessible to our Latino communities when you
00:40
have a house in the States,
00:41
when you buy a house,
00:42
that is your one way ticket to building like generational vault.
00:45
So I'm really happy to be here and break down some of
00:47
these very like complex problems like inflation.
00:50
Thank you so much for the work you're doing,
00:52
Marlene. We actually went outside,
00:55
we hit the streets to hear from the people.
00:58
You wanna see what they're actually saying out there?
01:01
See if we can answer their question.
01:02
Why are all these prices going so high.
01:05
We can hardly afford any of this stuff.
01:08
I mean, I am literally going home without having to buy
01:10
anything from here. Empty handed.
01:12
My heart goes out to all the people's families because listen,
01:15
me and Dora, like Dora is my dog.
01:17
She's a mini burnt doodle.
01:18
She's bougie. I mean,
01:19
she's expensive. I just can't imagine what it's like having a
01:22
family right now. Same here.
01:24
You know, I have Mis Hermanas,
01:25
they, they have their kids and they're also struggling with their
01:27
basic like dealing like necessities and then inflation is also at play
01:31
here. But what is inflation when the production of items goes
01:35
up? That cost is then given to the consumer.
01:38
For example, let's think about Hot Cheetos.
01:40
I'm a hot Cheeto girl.
01:41
I love, I love hot Cheetos TD when it gets more
01:43
expensive to produce a bag of Hot Cheetos as we've seen because
01:46
now there's more air than actual Cheetos in the bag.
01:50
you know, the price then goes up because it's more expensive
01:52
to make a Hot Cheeto bag and that price increase goes to
01:56
the consumer. And so imagine that on like a wider scale
01:59
with every single grocery item that you see at the store,
02:01
I experienced these financial changes like during COVID after the pandemic,
02:06
I really noticed a change.
02:08
The pandemic was a very severe shock to our system.
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Like it was a shock that impacted the economy.
02:14
Globally, it disrupted supply chains all over the world.
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It disrupted prices, disrupted production costs.
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It's been hitting its hard since,
02:20
since, since 2020 so companies,
02:22
they've had to shift quivers,
02:24
Presidente CNN Los Precios.
02:27
I think it's really important to understand the complexity of who exactly
02:31
sets grocery prices because we've had multiple issues at play for the
02:34
past few years. We've had the war in Ukraine.
02:36
We've had a disruption to our global supply chains due to the
02:39
pandemic and even like,
02:42
avian bird flu was really big issue a few years back.
02:45
And that's been impacting our egg prices.
02:47
Yeah. So for example,
02:48
when you buy something at the grocery store,
02:50
you're paying for more than just the product itself.
02:53
Your thea, your theo,
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your mom and your dad,
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they're not just paying for your egg or the milk,
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they're paying for the,
02:59
the costs like wages like transportation,
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the amount of labor it takes to move a product to the
03:04
grocery store which is not fair to us when you think about
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it are the people who are in production or you know,
03:10
farming? Are they being compensated for their time?
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We're feeling it more disproportionately.
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They are the ones bearing the brunt of the labor of picking
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our food and bringing it to our grocery stores.
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If the government were actually to help these businesses,
03:24
then maybe the prices would go down the better question to ask
03:27
would be, why do we,
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as consumers have to be swallowing those costs?
03:31
The focus should be on us because there's millions of us being
03:34
effective. So we should be the ones getting quote unquote assistance
03:37
Does the president have control of this?
03:39
Does the who has it?
03:41
That's what we want to know and who can make a difference
03:44
in lowering it back down?
03:47
the federal trade commission,
03:48
which they basically regulate business here in the state.
03:51
So they basically set the enforcement for how a business can operate
03:54
Ok. So we have the FTC as one variable.
03:57
We have inflation like we briefly talked about,
03:59
about production costs and then business profits.
04:01
Right now, there are four major grocers in the US and
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from there they set the prices only four.
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Wait, it's almost like a monopoly if anything.
04:09
he basically kind of has to fight with these big major,
04:14
yes, like the girlies are fighting and the FTC,
04:16
they're basically fighting these four large grocery store chains in the States
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And so they're going toe to toe with in terms of
04:25
regulation and seeing how,
04:26
you know, they can regulate these big businesses.
04:30
Wait, that's so embarrassing.
04:31
Like they're literally fighting to make things more expensive.
04:34
Vice President Harris, she's proposed some measures to help us this
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you know, stronger regulations to stop price gouging.
04:40
We're thinking about,
04:41
you know, supporting small businesses,
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you know, we can shop more local shop at your like
04:45
little Ranchito shop, at your little,
04:46
like smaller, like locally owned like Latino,
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you know, store and then we can make sure that,
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you know, big companies don't take over the food industry.
04:53
It appears that Kamala Harris does have a plan.
04:55
What about the other guy?
04:57
So Trampas, he actually hasn't put forward any plan to address
05:01
what's happening. What you mean all he said at the moment
05:04
is that he plans to do a potential tax on Chinese imports
05:07
But how does that impact these four major grocery stores who
05:10
are, who are directly in control of pricing in the States
05:14
Interesting, but it's up to us to keep our policymakers
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accountable, especially in this election.
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You know, we each have our own little,
05:20
little niches and, and places we live and,
05:22
and those are all affected during this election season.
05:25
So it does matter even though you think it doesn't,
05:28
I would say you have to pay attention or else I say
05:32
Pazar, I think it's really important to make sure your voice
05:34
is heard on all of these issues.
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So in the name of Tortillas and Hot Cheetos,
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don't forget to register to vote to make your voice count in
05:41
this next election. Where can we keep up with you on
05:45
socials on tiktok and Instagram,
05:47
Marlene period. Ramir are my handles.
05:50
Ok. Yeah, feel free to check out my content.
05:52
Thank you so, so much for joining us today.
05:55
Marlene Ramirez, everyone.
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This video was brought to you by Harris Walt's campaign reminding you
06:05
to go to. I will vote.com to find your polling place
06:09
and make a plan to vote by November 5th.
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