Grocery store owners clapped back after Whoopi Goldberg on ABC’s “The View” called them “pigs” over food inflation — and raised concerns that the name-calling could expose store owners to further violence, The Post has learned.
The comedian claimed “the folks that own the groceries are pigs” as she blamed them for rising prices at supermarkets on the Thursday show — a day after Donald Trump won the presidential election by hammering on inflation in his campaign.
“Your pocketbook is bad, not because the Bidens did anything. Not because the economy is bad. Your grocery bills are what they are because the folks that own the groceries are pigs,” Goldberg said on the popular program.
The National Grocers Association, which represents more than 21,000 stores nationwide, likewise objected in a letter to Brian Teta, executive producer of “The View,” that was obtained by The Post.
“We are deeply troubled by these remarks … referring to people who own grocery stores as ‘pigs,’” according to the letter from NGA chief executive Greg Ferrara.
Grocery stores operate on “razor thin” profit margins of between 1% and 2% and are misunderstood as the cause of food inflation — including by people who are driven by this rhetoric to commit “violent” crimes against retail workers, the trade group said.
“Statements that falsely depict grocers as ‘gouging’ not only exacerbate these tensions but also risk further harm to these frontline workers who have continued to serve the public through challenging times,” according to the letter.
Food inflation is the result of “broader economic issues,” including rising labor costs, Ferrara wrote.
ABC didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
“We are totally outraged by the comments,” Zulema Wiscovitch, who owns two Associated stores in Rosedale, Queens, and Brownsville, Brooklyn, and is co-president of Associated Supermarket Group, told The Post.
A clip of Golberg’s comment went viral in the grocery community, Wiscovitch said, with many incensed that family-owned businesses are being targeted by a celebrity who is inciting “hate” against their employees.
“Grocers are paying higher prices from manufacturers,” Wiscovitch said.
“It shows a lack of understanding of what’s going on with the economy,” she added. “For us to receive this kind of attack from a public figure is totally unacceptable.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
