When I talk with neighbors across Aurora, I hear the same thing: It’s getting too expensive to live. Everything costs more, and families are stretched thin. People are having trouble affording the basics necessities like groceries and housing.
Retail giants blame inflation, labor costs, and supply chain issues. Sometimes that’s real. But there’s another pattern we can’t ignore: Big box retailers use economic uncertainty as cover to raise prices and boost profits.
We saw it during COVID. Prices surged because of supply chain disruptions but never came back down after those disruptions eased. Instead, major grocers reported record profits. A 2024 Federal Trade Commission report confirmed that many retailers used the pandemic to “come out ahead at the expense of the communities they serve.”
Now, with the Trump administration’s unpredictable tariff policies, Walmart and Target are again changing price tags. Another crisis, another excuse.
These corporations also have a long history of opposing workers who try to organize. In Pueblo, Target workers seeking a union reported threats and intimidation. When Walmart workers in Loveland tried to unionize, the company flew in an anti-union rapid-response team. These companies protect profit first and people last.
And now they’re testing digital shelf tags, technology that allows prices to change in real time. That may be convenient for retailers, but it makes it harder for families to budget and easier for corporations to manipulate prices without anyone noticing. In an economy where every dollar matters, that’s unacceptable.
Some lawmakers are taking action. An Arizona legislator has proposed banning digital shelf tags, and members of Congress have introduced bills to limit them. That’s the kind of vigilance we need.
Throughout my time in public service, fighting predatory lending, strengthening worker protections, and pushing back on forced arbitration, I’ve learned that when corporations see an opening to take advantage of people, they often take it. That’s why elected leaders must stay one step ahead.
If big retailers won’t look out for Colorado families, then the rest of us in public office must. And we will.
Aurora Councilmember Rob Andrews is a newly-elected at-large, and has lived in Aurora for more than a decade.
Present. Looks like we will be sent a semi-monthly letter from newly elected at large City Councilor, very highly influenced socialist, capitalist hating, Rob Andrews.
These same, big corporations, providing essential needs and the jobs themselves are not anyone’s enemy. Their should be no enemy. Our system works. Government interference does not help anyone.
Hope Rob decides to support business in Aurora. Time will tell.
100% agree.
Hopefully CM Andrews comes to understand exactly how weak and fragile Aurora’s retail economy has become after four decades of extreme laze faire policies.
Aurora sits 14% below the per capita average in retail activity among Colorado cities and 59% behind Denver. And Aurora depends on sales tax receipts for pretty much everything.
Currently the City of Aurora can’t fund its way out of wet paper bag. Any hostile action against the retailers would be entirely counterproductive and not in the city’s best interests— unless you want more retailers to close their stores and layoff employees in Aurora.