Grocery-owner lawmaker warns urban stores will close first under Harris price controls

Rep. Michael Rulli (R-OH) issued a warning about the impacts that Vice President Kamala Harris’s proposed price control policies could have on grocery stores , noting that the smallest urban stores would be the first to suffer.

Harris has said she aims to limit price gouging in the food industry, which is one of many areas of the economy that has been hit with inflation . Rulli, a co-owner of the Rulli Bros. Markets grocery outlet, warned that her proposal would have an inverse effect, harming both grocery stores and the consumers to whom they sell.

“The first people that will go out of business are the urban stories,” Rulli said on Fox News’s America Reports. “So the urban desert that they’re constantly talking about is going to grow by leaps and bounds. The second people to go will be the midsize grocers, and the last would be the traditional big-box stores, whether it’s Kroger or Publix or whatever one of the grocery stores that you’re used to going to. This is going to hurt them.”

Another impact that Harris’s proposal could have on grocery stores, Rulli warned, is inventory shrinkage. Stores carry an average of 38,000 to 42,000 items, but if Harris becomes president and successfully implements her price controls, the inventory could go down to between 4,000 and 5,000, limiting the number of products consumers are allowed to buy.

“It will not be the American life that you’re used to living right now,” Rulli said.

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Harris will have the opportunity to elaborate on her price control proposals during her Thursday interview conducted by CNN’s Dana Bash . It marks the vice president's first interview since becoming the Democratic Party’s 2024 presidential candidate.

Former President Donald Trump, meanwhile, will be doing a town hall in Wisconsin as counterprogramming to Harris’s interview . The two are set to debate each other on Sept. 10 .