MSNBC’s Ruhle blasts Dollar Tree for raising prices, dismisses inflation threat
November 29, 2021
MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle blasted Dollar Tree in a series of tweets after the retailer announced that rising costs would result in a majority of its items being sold for $1.25 starting next year.
Ruhle, who has done extensive reporting on business and consumer affairs for MSNBC over the years, was livid that Dollar Tree would blame inflationary pressures on their decision to raise prices, stating in a tweet that they are doing it because they can, not because they need to.
DollarTree is raising prices because they CAN- not bc they need to.
It is a choice of how to share the benefits of their scale
To customers?
To employees?
To shareholders?
To mgmt? https://t.co/tvb8wTdB85— Stephanie Ruhle (@SRuhle) November 24, 2021
In an August earnings call, Dollar Tree CEO and president Michael Witynski mentioned that the company’s $1 price point has been challenging with supply chain issues and “higher freight costs and other inflationary pressures,” as inflation remains at 31-year highs.
“However, as detailed in its September announcement, the Company believes this is the appropriate time to shift away from the constraints of the $1.00 price point in order to continue offering extreme value to customers. This decision is permanent and is not a reaction to short-term or transitory market conditions,” the company said in a press release.
It is apparently lost on Ruhle that Dollar Tree has been in business for over 30 years and has managed to keep costs down until this year.
Just bc input costs go up…that does NOT mean a business must raise prices to customers.
It is not automatic— Stephanie Ruhle (@SRuhle) November 24, 2021
Ruhle made it appear that Dollar Tree is the only public company that is raising prices due to cost pressures when virtually every company in America has been facing the same problems and have also raised prices–in some cases multiple times as the Biden administration’s so-called transitory inflation has continued to roar ahead.
While it is true that an increase in costs doesn’t mean that a business must raise its prices, a prolonged increase in costs will inevitably lead to higher prices if the business is to survive.
Rising inflation is a problem for the White House and Democratic Party and Ruhle did her level best to deflect the blame to a corporate boogeyman rather than the real one.