City Council: New Yorkers Gouged on Milk Prices
New York, NY —
Milk money ain't what it used to be. A City Council report shows that on average New Yorkers are paying more for the daily staple than they should be, and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn says that's against the law.
The report showed 86 percent of the city's grocery stores were charging as much as 40 cents above the national retail price of milk.
At a time when food prices are increasing worldwide, Aine Duggan of Food Bank New York says the increases put an unfair squeeze on the city's poor.
DUGGAN: They are exactly the people who walk into a store and find that they can't buy basic necessities. They can only buy some of the necessities and they must go to a food pantry or a soup kitchen to make up the rest.
REPORTER: The report reveals that several stores violate the state's Milk Gouging Law, which prevents retailers from overcharging for the essential dairy product.
A spokesman for Gristede’s, one of the grocery stores named in the report, says they are selling milk at a fair price and the increase is reflective of the cost of living in a city like New York.
