Target CEO criticizes Harris for blaming inflation on corporate “price gouging”

Target's CEO rejects Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign promise to end “price gouging,” arguing that companies simply have no room to raise prices in the extremely competitive retail industry.

“We're in a penny business,” Brian Cornell said on CNBC on Wednesday when asked whether Target or industry competitors ever profit from so-called “price gouging.”

He added that the “competitive” nature of retail makes it easy for customers to shop for the lowest prices, which in turn makes it difficult for companies to maintain demand when they raise those prices. “Is there a more competitive area than retail?” he asked his interviewer on the financial news channel.

And with the advent of online stores, he added, “people can pull out their phone and check the price of milk at Target and other retailers.”

Harris' comments were a response to claims that food prices are being driven up by nefarious corporate price manipulation. During her speech at the Democratic National Convention this week, Harris even called for a federal ban on “price gouging.”

Other food and retail industry leaders also reacted strongly to her proposal to introduce price controls.

“We understand why there is this price shock and why it is annoying. But to automatically say that there must be something evil at play is, in my opinion, too simplistic a statement,” said the vice president of the food retail and supplier trade group FMI.

While rising food prices are a significant burden on American consumers—they have risen by more than 20 percent since President Biden took office—many economists doubt the effectiveness of price regulation.

Jason Furman, a former Obama administration economist, argued that anti-price gouging laws could ultimately hurt consumers. “It's not a sensible policy, and I think the biggest hope is that it ends up being a lot of rhetoric and no reality,” he told the New York Times. “There are no benefits to this, and there are some downsides.”