Author

Marty Schladen

Marty Schladen

Marty Schladen has been a reporter for decades, working in Indiana, Texas and other places before returning to his native Ohio to work at The Columbus Dispatch in 2017. He's won state and national journalism awards for investigations into utility regulation, public corruption, the environment, prescription drug spending and other matters.

Federal regulator: Pharmacy middlemen appear to be raising prices, hurting patients
By: - July 9, 2024

The federal trade watchdog has released an interim report Tuesday saying that sprawling health care conglomerates are driving out competition in the pharmacy sector and appear to be increasing prices in the process. The interim report comes after the Federal Trade Commission in 2022 announced that it was undertaking a sweeping investigation of pharmacy middlemen […]

Trade watchdog: Big retailers used supply-chain problems to inflate grocery costs
By: - April 2, 2024

Looking for someone to blame for increased costs in the grocery aisle? You might not need to look any further than three retail giants, the Federal Trade Commission said in a recent report. The agency looked at supply chain disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic and determined that the three largest food retailers — Kroger, […]

Dollar stores, giant grocery chains push healthy food out of reach for many, activists say
By: - June 7, 2023

“Efficiency” is a frequent justification for allowing corporations to consolidate vast swathes of the marketplace. But when it comes to food, huge grocery chains and ubiquitous dollar stores are limiting some rural and urban communities’ access to healthy food at the same time they bankrupt the farmers who produce it, members of a virtual panel […]