00:00All right, welcome back.
00:02In other news, which happens to be good and also interesting, how about this?
00:06Walmart and Eagle have lowered prices.
00:09And Piggly Wiggly specifically announced last week its Affordable Protein Initiative, API,
00:15is reinforcing the company's commitment to provide fresh, high-quality meat at an exceptional value.
00:22It seems like I'm doing a commercial.
00:23Through strategic manufacturer partnerships, fresh in-store meat operations,
00:27its proprietary power-buying program, and its cost-plus-10% pricing philosophy,
00:33Piggly Wiggly, is helping customers save on the products families purchase most.
00:38It does sound like a commercial.
00:40Here's what they say.
00:41Our mission has always been simple, adds Kevin McDaniel.
00:46Deliver the highest-quality fresh meat at the best value possible.
00:49Every decision we make, from negotiating with the manufacturer to cutting fresh beef and our pork in our stores,
00:55packaging fresh poultry and pricing our products is centered on creating value for the families who trust Piggly Wiggly the
01:02most.
01:03All right, but why now?
01:04Why are they lowering them now?
01:05Why are retailers going and making this effort?
01:09I think Affordable Protein Initiative would probably make the argument that policy changes are creating an environment
01:14where retailers are feeling that they can lower prices and still make their margins.
01:18I don't know.
01:19To talk more about this and the timing of it, please welcome to the show Mr. T.J. Wilson.
01:25He's with the American First Policy Institute.
01:26Thanks for coming on, brother.
01:27I mean, that is a good question, right?
01:29Why are they doing it, and why are they doing it now?
01:32It's a great question.
01:33You know, I think you have to start with there being three ways to govern in situations like this where
01:38prices are high.
01:39You can govern like the last administration where there's runaway inflation, there's runaway prices, there's runaway input costs,
01:47there's no new market expansions in the form of trade deals, and you basically do nothing.
01:51That's one way to govern.
01:52There's another way to govern that we've seen of late, right, in New York City where you have folks like
01:57Mayor Mondani
01:58who have this idea of government-run grocery stores, and what those do is, you know,
02:02they make us collect our groceries in the same way we stand in line at the DMV,
02:06no selection, no service, no quality, and all the private businesses leave.
02:10Or really, you can govern the way that we're seeing the Trump administration govern,
02:15which is, you know, where there's a strategic slog of long investments and time to deregulate
02:23in both a surgical manner and at Trump speed, frankly.
02:27And, you know, we're starting to see those sort of macro, large-scale costs that are coming down in the
02:34economy,
02:34and they're reducing everything from the cost of refrigeration to energy that cuts across the whole economy
02:40to input costs.
02:42I mean, look at the price of natural gas, look at the price of fuel.
02:45You know, you can see it really across the whole economy.
02:47And so it's a lot of hard work that's gone on by President Trump, by Secretary Rollins,
02:51by the rest of the cabinet to lean into this problem from day one, you know,
02:55and we're starting to see the results.
02:57Egg prices don't come down by 90% because of charity or accident.
03:03You know, and you've seen that now there's double digits with other proteins, with other staples.
03:07So it's really promising news.
03:08And, you know, I think it's really going to be hay in the barn, a lot of this work that's
03:12going on,
03:13as we turn to the fall and the winter.
03:17Yeah, because in the fall, we all know, November the 5th, it's going to be about affordability, right?
03:22And this goes, I would think, a long way towards that affordability issue, right?
03:27And I guess my question is, is that how is he strong-arming us?
03:32How is he getting these folks to lean in with him to bring these prices down?
03:36What's in it for them?
03:37Well, it's a good question.
03:39I think folks forget that President Trump is the only president we've had in decades, to my knowledge,
03:43that started and ran large businesses, very successful large businesses.
03:47And in a lot of ways, he leads from the front in that way.
03:50And we see that with the way that he talks to these companies, with the ways that he holds them
03:55accountable,
03:55frankly, for when the macros are trending lower, which is what we're seeing.
04:00And, you know, it's not acceptable to not pass those savings on to consumers.
04:04And frankly, we've got a lot of patriotic companies that you've seen cut prices and pass those savings
04:09that are systemic along to consumers.
04:11So, you know, I think he leads from the front.
04:12I think he also, you know, provides a lot of certainty to folks.
04:16We all know that that's the key piece of this, right?
04:19Before prices get cut, there's got to be certainty that, you know, we're not going to get whiplash.
04:27Well, so the last thing that really, well, one of the last things, but it's probably the biggest,
04:31and you probably know what I'm going to say, but he needs to have come his way in line with
04:36what he's doing here
04:37with these retailers is that energy price, oil prices.
04:41That's going to be kind of the fly in the oil one here in the short term.
04:44And I say short term because I do believe he understands that it definitely will be over,
04:48and obviously the sooner the better.
04:50And the tradeoff is, and I've said this a hundred times on this show,
04:54at least we're getting something for this higher inflation.
04:57And today it came in rather benign, and it's going in the right direction.
05:00But we had 9.1% CPI in June of 2022 under Joe Biden.
05:05And what did we get from that?
05:07Did we disarm any big terrorist country in the world for that?
05:10No.
05:10We had to pay a tax, and we got nothing for it.
05:13At least with this small tax, and we're still not as high as the prices were under his government,
05:17we're getting something for these higher prices.
05:20And I think that we need to make sure that that message gets out.
05:23I think you're right.
05:24And, you know, prices were up stunningly 25%.
05:27Food prices were up 25% during the last administration.
05:31That is an incredible amount of money on average across all goods.
05:34Some goods, oh, yeah, some goods were hundreds of percents high,
05:38you know, multiple times higher, you know.
05:41And so folks forget this.
05:44It takes a lot of hard work in the trenches, thousands of hours from the cabinet,
05:48from, you know, patriotic folks that are serving the administration,
05:52that are leaning on these companies, that are doing the slashing and, you know,
05:56strategic surgical cutting to regulations and otherwise to bring down these costs.
06:01You know, I mean, these were America's last policies that took time to sort of slash and gash,
06:09and we're thankfully getting there.
06:12Yeah, I totally agree.
06:14Great stuff.
06:14You know, to your point about the 25%, I hear that number all the time.
06:18But do you want to tell me that $100 worth of groceries in 2020 was only worth $125 in 2024?
06:26Ask anybody's wife.
06:27They'll tell you, no way, I'm God's green earth.
06:29It's more like $160, $170.
06:32And I agree with that, too.
06:34So I think that 25% that everybody still uses, and I use it, too, is really not reflective.
06:39But, TJ, always love having you on.
06:42You always bring us some great stuff.
06:43That was a great idea.
06:44I appreciate you.
06:45That story was very interesting.
06:47We'll see how it all comes out.
06:49We'll get that oil price down, and away we go.
06:51But I appreciate you coming on the show.
06:52Super.
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