BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — After a settlement with Walgreens involving baby formula price gouging during the 2022 shortage, the New York Attorney General has announced thousands of cans will be donated to Western New Yorkers.
New York State Attorney General Letitia James is holding Walgreens accountable after her office found the national retailer sold more than 2,400 cans and bottles at inflated prices back in 2022 — a time when the country was experiencing a major formula shortage.
“Here is Erie County, a can of formula usually sells for $49.99, was being sold for $59.99,” James said. “This was blatant price gouging, and price gouging is illegal.”
During the retail shortage, Walgreens raised the prices of products anywhere from ten to seventy percent.
Rebecca Castaneda had her son, Benny, in August 2022 — during the peak of the shortage.
“Sometimes I would visit eight stores in an afternoon over the course of two or three hours just to there and see empty shelves,” Castaneda said. “I can’t emphasize enough that these are not hypothetical scenarios. These are choices I had to make … will my baby be okay if I feed him expired formula? Already opened formula I got off a stranger on Facebook?”
Two years later, New York State is hoping to right these wrongs.
The Attorney General’s office is donating more than 4,600 cans of formula, valued at $100,000, to FeedMore WNY and the Buffalo Prenatal-Perinatal Network.
“We recently had a mom who delivered a set of triplets and was just shy of qualifying for the Women, Infants and Children Support Program,” Mykia Gibson, Program Supervisor of the Buffalo Prenatal-Perinatal Network, said. “She spent over $300 a month to provide formula for her babies.”
These organizations said formula donations could mean the world to some families.
“This donation of formula will be made available to agencies within our network of nearly 400 hunger relief partners,” Catherine Shick, Public Relations Manager for FeedMore, said. “Our agencies will be able to request the formula immediately through our online portal, and our trucks will quickly deliver the orders to our hunger relief partners.
Walgreens has agreed to pay $50,000 to resolve the investigation.
New Yorkers can report price gouging concerns by calling 800-771-7755 or by filing a complaint online here.
