Super Bowl snacks still persistently expensive
Super Bowl fans stocking up for gameday parties will get the tiniest of breaks this year.
Despite a lingering bout of sticky inflation, many party staples are cheaper than they were last year.
One of the biggest declines was found in chicken wings, according to a report from Wells Fargo. A year ago, the national average for a pound of wings was $3.38.
That number reached nearly $4 in early April. As of last Monday, the average price was hovering around $2.65, the report said, a 22% decrease from Super Bowl 2022.
As for other snacks and beverages, forget about big discounts.
Beer is about 11% more expensive than it was a year ago. Wine is about 2% more expensive, and spirits are about 2% more expensive.
For nonalcoholic beverages the news is even worse. The report says soft drinks are up by about 25% over prices from a year ago.
Chips are about 11% more expensive than they were in 2022.
So are there any deals afoot for today’s big game, pitting the Philadelphia Eagles against the Kansas City Chiefs?
A California favorite, avocados, have seen their price drop to about 20% less than they were a year ago.
Pill Club reaches $18.3M settlement with California
The Pill Club, an online women’s pharmacy, has reached an $18.3 million settlement with California authorities over claims it defrauded the state’s Medicaid program by prescribing birth control pills without adequate consultation and shipping tens of thousands of female condoms to customers who didn’t want them.
Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the agreement Tuesday, a day after a state court unsealed a whistleblower complaint against The Pill Club, which markets convenient reproductive health services to women nationwide. The whistleblowers’ complaint alleges the Silicon Valley company also bilked private health insurers in at least 38 states, including California.
The Pill Club agreed to pay $15 million to the state Department of Justice and $3.3 million to the Department of Insurance. California officials said they believe it’s the first such enforcement action against the company. The Pill Club formed in 2016 as an online-only pharmacy distributing birth control pills and other contraceptives. It serves more than 3 million customers nationwide, according to its website.
The whistleblowers and their attorneys will receive nearly $4.6 million from the two state settlements. Justice Department officials said the settlement will cover all the losses to Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program.
149 more closures, 9 in California, for Bed Bath & Beyond
Bed Bath & Beyond has revealed the locations of 149 more stores it’s closing, including nine in California.
The new list of closures comes just a week after it announced it was shuttering 87 other stores. Over the past several months, it has closed or in the process of closing about 400 locations, which includes the closure of five BuyBuyBaby locations and all 49 remaining Harmon Face Value stores.
California closures include locations in Elk Grove, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, Vacaville, Chico, Santa Ana, Yorba Linda, Beaumont and Downey.
In total, the company is reducing the number of Bed Bath & Beyond stores from 760 to about 360, with the company keeping its most profitable stores open in key markets. At its peak in 2017, the storied brand had 1,552 stores open.
The company, which is teetering dangerously close to bankruptcy, has avoided Chapter 11 for now by completing a complex stock offering that will give it an immediate injection of $225 million in funds and a pledge for $800 million in the future to pay down its current debt load.