Federal Trade Commission try to hide collusion driving Black grocers out of business: report

Even Trump’s pet, Snoop, barks at administration, alleges cereal sabotage  

Real footage of Snoop discovering leopards eating his face and not his cereal. image credit: Shutterstock

You wouldn’t expect President Donald Trump favoring Snoop Dogg to be the red-eyed face of free markets and food availability in low-income and minority neighborhoods, but the rapper and record producer is locked in a dog fight with Trump officials over a wide-scale Black-business lock-out. 

It be your own people multi-billion-dollar corporate business partners  

The rapper, born Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr., has his own breakfast cereal brand, originally launched as Snoop Loopz, through his company Broadus Foods, in partnership with cereal distributor Post Consumer Brands. For those who don’t know, Snoop markets cereals Fruity Hoopz with Marshmallows, Cinnamon Toasteez and Frosted Drizzlers, which are created to compete with major cereals found at Walmart and Kroger. 

But Broadus and fellow entertainer Master P (born Percy Miller) are suing his Post cereal distributor and Walmart for colluding to exclude his brand from its store shelves. Their suit argues that when Broadus and Miller originally approached Post Consumer Brands to get support for their cereals, Post preferred to outright buy the brand. At the time, they refused, arguing that selling to Post would "destroy the whole purpose” of their work. This, they said, was about Black wealth and leaving something for their families — not further enriching a white-run company. 

Post then proffered a partnership agreement with Broadus Foods to manufacture, market, distribute and sell Snoop Cereal in December 2022 and to split the profits. Only Broadus and Miller say that’s not what happened. Instead, they "pretended to be on board" with the duo's goals and "entered a false arrangement where they could choke Broadus Foods out of the market, thereby preventing Snoop Cereal from being sold or produced by any competitor.” 

Mere months after launch, they argue customers were unable to find Snoop-brand cereals in "many" Walmart stores across the U.S. 

Snoop’s suit is ongoing to this day, but revelations in December reveal the Trump administration is apparently onboard with mega-company practices from Wal-Mart and Kroger to drive smaller competition out of business in low-income neighborhoods across the nation. 

Last month, a government transparency nonprofit forced the Trump administration to unseal an embarrassing complaint lodged by the Biden-era Federal Trade Commission against Pepsi for similarly colluding with Walmart to raise food prices at smaller grocery store chains and family-owned grocers. New un-redacted information claims FTC Chair Ferguson and his colleague Mark Meador (both Trump appointees) were burying evidence of the mechanics behind Pepsi’s and Wal-Mart’s price fixing that keep shelf items in tiny grocery stores more expensive than products on mega-shelves. 

In Walmart’s hands, Pepsi becomes a weapon against small stores 

Pepsi is a “must-have” product for grocery stores, and Walmart is also massively powerful,” reports BIG Newsletter writer Matt Stoller. But Stoller said Pepsi regularly engages in price discrimination to maintain Walmart’s approval. This includes the practice of “policing prices” at smaller rival stores and ratting out small chains to Walmart when they sell Pepsi products at competing prices. 

Wal-Mart prides itself on selling products at their absolute lowest — so much so that when a smaller Mom and Pop store in a low-wealth community dares to compete by marking down products at unsustainable prices and eating the difference, Walmart apparently gets mad. This is called “self-funding” shelf items, and tiny stores sometimes do it to keep customers from having to drive 20 miles to a wealthy white suburb to go to Walmart. 

However, this apparently creates a “price gap” between Walmart and its tiny minority-owned grocery rivals, and when it gets too big, Pepsi tracks where consumers are buying Pepsi products outside of Walmart and distributes their findings on these so-called “offenders.” Then Pepsi punishes the small guys by raising their stock price, forcing the small stores to carry the cost increases down to their customers, while Walmart enjoys the same low stock price it always did. 

“Stacy Mitchell, co-director of anti-monopoly group Institute for Local Self-Reliance, which launched the complaint against Pepsi at the FTC, said the scheme explains why independent grocery stores are dying.  

“We can be almost certain that this is the same monopolistic deal Walmart has cut with other major grocery suppliers,” said Mitchell. “It’s led to less competition, fewer local grocery stores and higher prices.” 

Much of the information on this insidious practice was redacted by Trump officials, however, including Ferguson and Meador. 

When the federal government files an antitrust case, which the Trump administration rarely does against its mega corporation buddies, the complaint typically gets redacted to protect confidential business information. The redactions are supposed to be temporary, however, as the corporate defendant and government investigators haggle over what actually qualifies as “confidential business information.” Complaints are, ultimately, unsealed with a few blacked-out phrases and the case moves on into investigation.  

The collusion almost stayed secret … almost   

“In this case, however, … Ferguson abruptly dropped the case … after Pepsi hired well-connected lobbyists,” said Stoller. “… Ferguson ended it the day before the government was supposed to go before the judge to manage the unsealing process. And that kept the complaint redacted. With the complaint kept secret, Ferguson and … Meador, then publicly went on the attack.” 

Ferguson apparently had hard feelings for the Biden administration for daring to call out their friends at Pepsi and Walmart and released a whining statement against Biden-era FTC Chair Lina Khan for launching the complaint against Pepsi’s collusion. 

Ferguson then laughably claimed to have had to “clean up the Biden-Harris FTC’s mess.” Fellow commissioner Mark Meador jumped into the bushwhacking and echoed his boss’ comments on X. 

Aside from Ferguson’s and Meador’s little whine-cycle, the Trump administration had almost succeeded in keeping the whole collusion secret had the ISLR not filed to make the full complaint public. Judge Jesse Matthew Furman agreed to hear ILSR’s case — and you can bet Trump’s U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Pepsi bitterly opposed that decision.  

Nevertheless, last month, Furman directed the FTC to unseal the complaint, giving Black Girl Times and a host of anti-monopoly and anti-food desert and anti-food apartheid champions a chance to see the gears of exclusion grinding under the hood. This is what Trump’s cronies Ferguson and Meador were trying to hide. And this is one of the reasons Black businesses can’t compete with a massive strip-mall mega store squatting many miles away in an affluent suburb. 

Of course, the case is no longer active because Trump’s FTC cronies refused to pursue Pepsi and Walmart for their incriminating behavior. Mitchell complains the Trump administration’s decision alerts “all of these companies that they can just keep favoring Walmart even as rural and urban grocery stores disappear and prices rise.” 

However, ILSR Senior Researcher Ron Knox told Black Girl Times that Furman’s decision reveals that anti-competitive price discrimination that raises prices and harms independent grocers “may be endemic throughout the economy,” and that while this particular case is no longer active, the allegations in the lawsuit can “be explored and litigated more fully — either by private plaintiffs, or future government action.”