Many regions in America have experienced significant decline. While some view the shuttered storefronts in rural areas and certain city neighborhoods as a sign that they simply couldn't keep pace, my perspective as an antitrust regulator leads me to wonder: Perhaps we overlooked an important factor.

For many years, our government took measures to prevent large retailers from coercing suppliers into making secret agreements that excluded smaller competitors. This was enforced through the Robinson-Patman Act, which once stood as the most commonly applied antitrust legislation by the Federal Trade Commission. However, beginning in the 1980s, a change in philosophy that favored the belief in unregulated markets as a solution to various issues led officials to slow down enforcement efforts, ultimately ceasing to uphold the law entirely.

Consumers know what happened next. From the early 1980s to today, big-box store chains flourished while over 100,000 small retailers closed shop. These closures particularly affected low-income communities and created food deserts — areas where healthy, affordable food is hard to find. Forty years ago, the term “food deserts” didn’t exist. Now it is almost a synonym for rural and inner-city America.

Last month the commission, which I serve on, voted to bring its first Robinson-Patman action in more than two decades. We filed suit against Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits, the nation’s largest distributor of alcohol, alleging that the company systematically forced small grocery and liquor stores to pay higher prices than big-box retailers such as Costco and Walmart — differences that cannot be attributed to the lower cost of buying in bulk. (Southern Glazer’s called the commission’s lawsuit “misguided and legally flawed” and said the company’s “pricing and discounting structure does not violate” the Robinson-Patman Act.)

Nearly three years ago, when I was inaugurated at the Federal Trade Commission, I developed a keen interest in the Robinson-Patman Act. While some claimed that the law safeguarded the inefficient, my experiences visiting local shops in New York and Washington, D.C., as well as the independent grocery stores in my wife's home state of Louisiana, told a different story.

One day I came across the 2021 congressional testimony of R.F. Buche, a fourth-generation independent grocer in South Dakota. He talked about how the failure to enforce the law was hurting his customers in Indian Country.

I made the choice to check out Buche Foods, his grocery store. It stands as the sole full-service supermarket in Pine Ridge, a town of 3,000 people located in one of the most impoverished counties in the country. Despite this, the store was lively and full of energy. Bilingual signs adorned the space, showcasing both English and Lakota, while walls were decorated with school spirit merchandise.

Inside the manager's office, Mr. Buche presented a list of necessary grocery items: eggs, lettuce, and cereal. Alongside each entry, he noted the price he paid to his wholesaler and the retail price at the closest big-box store, located 50 miles away. His customers faced prices that were 30 to 50 percent higher for these goods compared to what they would find at the big-box store.

Mr. Buche clarified that this issue wasn't related to purchasing in large quantities. He noted that even when his wholesaler combined smaller orders to match the volume of larger packages, they were still unable to access the reduced prices. “Two decades ago, if you utilized our coupons, we could compete with or even undercut the big box stores,” he remarked. “That’s no longer the case.”

I traveled to North Tulsa, Okla., to visit Oasis Fresh Market, the first grocery store to open in that community in 15 years. Unlike Pine Ridge, which is minutes from the Badlands, this store is in the shadow of the once-thriving business district known as Black Wall Street. Their experiences — from the customers to the owners — were familiar. Oasis Fresh Market is an independent grocer serving a predominantly low-income community, where the average resident’s life span is years shorter than the national average. If either store goes under, area residents would need to travel long distances to obtain even basic grocery items.

Similar to Mr. Buche, Aaron Johnson, the creator of Oasis, listed the additional costs he incurs that aren't faced by large retail chains.

I had a conversation with the bulk buyers, whose role is to negotiate the best deals for independent grocery stores. In a conference room close to Salt Lake City, the CEO of a wholesaler catering to various independents became emotional, shedding tears of frustration as he articulated his struggle. Despite his efforts and the large volumes he ordered, he lamented that he could never secure prices from suppliers that matched those offered to the buyers at large retail chains.

“It makes no sense that places where food is grown and where the most people live have trouble finding access to the central food items and products,” said an Alabama grocer, Jimmy Wright, in one of our recent commission meetings.

Opponents of the commission's attempts to reinstate Robinson-Patman have propagated the misconception that the law will lead to increased prices, despite the absence of any empirical studies over the 88 years since its enactment to support this claim. In truth, Robinson-Patman was established to ensure that small retailers and their customers could benefit from the same affordable prices enjoyed by larger competitors.

Most Americans believe that the economic system is biased against them and favors the rich. This perception may stem from the fact that when influential corporations violate the law, prosecutors tend to overlook their misdeeds, often granting them every possible leniency. Furthermore, when the interests of these corporations conflict with legal standards, those standards are often disregarded or bent.

The essence of the Robinson-Patman Act is that uniform rules should be upheld for all parties involved. It is crucial to re-establish the enforcement of these regulations.

Alvaro Bedoya is a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission. This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Alvaro Bedoya | Contributing to The New York Times

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