“Shrinking the size of a product in order to gouge consumers on the price per ounce is not innovation, it is exploitation,” the Democrats wrote in their letters. “Unfortunately, this price gouging is a widespread problem, with corporate profits driving over half of inflation.”

The lawmakers pointed to a recent report by the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy that found that from 2018 to 2022, Coca-Cola made $13.4 billion but paid an average effective tax rate of 13.5 percent, PepsiCo made $22.4 billion but paid 15 percent and General Mills made $12 billion but paid 14.8 percent.

“No corporation should pay a lower tax rate than working Americans — especially when that same corporation turns around and gouges consumers on the other end through shrinkflation,” the lawmakers said.

New Jersey is one of many states that contracts with private telecom companies to provide communication services for its prisons, including phone calls, electronic messaging, and video calls. The state currently contracts with two companies: ViaPath, formerly Global Tel Link, and JPay, a subsidiary of Securus Technologies.[viii] Founded in 1989, ViaPath was one of the first companies to transform prison phone calls into a multimillion-dollar industry.[ix] JPay, founded in 2002 as a prison money-wiring service, has since emerged as one of the largest prison technology contractors in the country.[x]

ViaPath and JPay make up nearly 80 percent of the prison communication market share in the United States, and their monopoly contracts allow them to charge exorbitant fees and generate hundreds of millions of dollars in profit from incarcerated individuals and their families.[xi] The two companies have each faced their fair share of price-gouging complaints, with ViaPath, ordered to pay $67 million to settle a 2015 class-action lawsuit, and JPay ordered to pay $6 million in fines and restitution in 2021 for charging excessive and illegal fees.[xii]

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Chemical spills, a ceiling collapse, indoor bears. Employees and park superfans blame the hospitality company Aramark.

Aramark’s contract in Yosemite, worth approximately $2 billion over 15 years...

... park insiders say the industry still holds considerable sway. Yosemite is among America’s most lucrative and popular parks, with almost 4 million visitors accounting for roughly $140 million in annual concessions revenue. The NPS has a $3.5 billion annual budget, a $21 billion maintenance backlog and little power to punish a disappointing contractor. “If you kick them out, then what do you do?” asks Jon Jarvis, who ran the park service during the Obama years. “We don’t have rangers to change bed linens.”