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Walmart, Kroger, and Other Grocery Stores Are Meeting With the White House to Address Shortages

President Biden is meeting with leaders from major retailers to combat low food supplies.
FACT CHECKED BY Faye Brennan

Thanksgiving may be over, but December is about to bring more holiday meals and celebrations, which means grocery shopping demands will remain high. Unfortunately, supply chain issues are still rampant across the country, and several big supermarket chains are taking drastic steps to make sure that their stores are fully stocked. In fact, several big-name grocery store chains are headed to Washington D.C. today to meet with President Biden in order to address food shortages head-on.

Leaders of Walmart, Kroger, Food Lion, Todos Supermarket, CVS, and other major retailers are meeting with the White House either in person or virtually on Monday, Nov. 29 to hear about President Biden's plans to curb inflation, delays, shortages, and low supplies ahead of Christmas, Bloomberg reports.

Related: This Major Grocery Chain Is Putting Purchase Limits on Bacon and Other Popular Items

The meeting comes after the President spoke to the press on Nov. 23 about the problems that have come about in the wake of the pandemic. The President told reporters:

"Disruptions related to the pandemic have caused challenges in our supply chain which have sparked concern about shortages and contributed to higher prices.

Moms and dads are worried, asking, 'Will there be enough food we can afford to buy for the holidays? Will we be able to get Christmas presents to the kids on time? And if so, will they cost me an arm and a leg?'

I told you before that we are going to take action on these problems, and that's exactly what we're doing."

The President then outlined the Port Action Plan, which aims to relieve the pressures ports are facing to unload stalled cargo ships, especially on the West Coast in Los Angeles and Long Beach. The three-month effort involves ports switching from operating 40 hours a week to 24/7, as well as sending efforts to ports on the East Coast, like Savannah, Ga., to reduce congestion.

The President previously met with the CEOs of Walmart, Target, and others in mid-November who agreed to bring in more products faster in order to restock shelves. Although shortages of things like apples, cranberries, turkeys, and other Thanksgiving foods were rumored, no widespread shortages were reported this past Thanksgiving weekend… only higher prices.

President Biden is expected to report on the results from the meeting with Walmart, Kroger, and other major food retailers shortly, at which point, Eat This, Not That! will have updates on this developing story.

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Amanda McDonald
Amanda has a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University and a bachelor's degree in digital journalism from Loyola University Chicago. Read more about Amanda