In a Tuesday post on social media, the Justice Department said Stanley Woodward sent letters last month to eight major grocers. The requests asked for details on how the retailers buy beef and plan their strategies, along with information on shelf prices, profit margins and market analyses, covering the past six years.
The outreach drew no remarks from Kroger and Albertsons, which declined to comment. The other retailers and the DOJ did not respond to requests for comment.
The agency said in May it was looking into potential antitrust violations in meatpacking after President Donald Trump publicly called for a probe last year when beef costs were setting records. At the DOJ, antitrust oversight sits with Woodward for now, while the Senate reviews Trump's pick for the post. The letters went out on July 14. Seven days earlier, Trump praised Walmart after it said it would cut prices on seasonal items, including beef.
Beef has been one of the heaviest contributors to food inflation, with prices repeatedly hitting new highs. In July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that ground beef averaged $7.116 per pound, easing from its peak yet remaining close to a record. The backdrop is a deep cattle shortfall in the U.S. Ranchers dealing with parched conditions, steeper input bills and uncertainty have kept herds lean. That scarcity has left meatpackers with fewer animals to process, pressuring their margins, prompting some plant closures and pushing up grocery costs.
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The expanded inquiry puts fresh attention on how big-box grocers buy and price beef as November's midterms approach. Separately, in his most recent remarks, Trump said up to 300,000 metric tons of ground beef could be imported with lower tariffs for a 90 day window to bolster supply. If the market gets more product and DOJ pressure changes behavior, shelf prices could shift. For shoppers, this tug of war between tight herds, packer economics and policy moves is what will show up in the meat aisle.
