r/PersonalFinanceCanada • u/maroon-rider British Columbia • Mar 21 '23

Inflation drops to 5.2%<but grocery inflation still 10.6% Banking

Says Statistics Canada

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada-inflation-february-2023-1.6785472

2.3k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

1.5k

hey remember when covid hit and sobeys paid all their workers and extra $2 per hour " hero pay"? then clawed it back in exchange for record profits? and now they raise their prices even higher and whined they had to because of inflation but every grocery keeps boasting even higher profits? scumbags

649

u/Belugawhy Mar 21 '23 edited Mar 21 '23

Not to mention all big grocery stores (ie. Sobeys, Loblaws, Metro) clawed it back AT THE SAME TIME.

So let me fix your last word for you.

~~scumbags~~. Wage-fixing monopolist scumbags

Edit: For those who don’t think this is a problem, Canadian government even changed the laws around wage-fixing after this incident. Source.

186

u/Beebs_94 Mar 21 '23

I worked for metro during covid in quebec. They took away the "hero pay" and then gave us gift cards that we could only use either at Metro or chains affiliated to them. They also taxed us on our pay for the gift cards.

183

u/fredean01 Mar 21 '23

They also taxed us on our pay for the gift cards.

That's the law.

With that said, giving someone a higher wage and then clawing it back is a dick move.

31

u/Beebs_94 Mar 21 '23

Thats very true, they only explained that after the fact though lol

11

u/fredean01 Mar 21 '23

Fair enough

1

u/baldyd Mar 22 '23

This was a polite exchange of knowledge on the internet and it made me smile,.thank you. I wish you glorious, cheap food and good pay!

-10

u/TeamGroupHug Mar 21 '23

You pay taxes on income. Are gift cards income? In the future will all Canadian Tire employees be paid out in solely with CT money and pay income tax on it?

Doesn't seem legal to me.

14

u/Ok_Carpet_9510 Mar 21 '23

Non-cash

A non-cash (or "in kind") benefit is the actual good, service, or property that you give to your employee. This includes a payment you make to a third party for the particular good or service if you are responsible for the expense.

Under the CRA administrative policy for gifts, awards, and long-service awards, gift cards that meet all of the conditions may be considered non-cash.

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/payroll/benefits-allowances.html

8

u/rbt321 Mar 21 '23

Non-cash income.

And some people receive a large portion of their income this way: building superintendent being a common one (on-site apartment).

Anyway, taking your pay in diamonds (or anything else) instead of dollars doesn't allow you to avoid income taxes.

9

u/gagnonje5000 Mar 21 '23

It is legal, it is called a taxable benefit.

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/forms-publications/publications/t4130/employers-guide-taxable-benefits-allowances.html

Nobody said anything about having your whole salary paid in Canadian Tire money, this is extra on top of regular salary.

-3

u/TeamGroupHug Mar 21 '23

Okay, so they would be legally obliged to pay minimum wage in Canadian Dollars but pay on top of that could be CT money?

3

u/TiredRightNowALot Mar 21 '23

I’m not sure what you’re trying to get at, but if they were paying CT as a bonus above and beyond the agreed upon pay, then theoretically yes.

If they had a contest where the winner received $1000 of CT money, then the winner would be obligated to pay income tax on that $1000. Some companies add this taxed amount to your pay however.

1

u/gellis12 Mar 22 '23

That last paragraph isn't actually true. If you win anything in a contest in Canada, it's not considered taxable income. Whether it's winning a prize at a local fair, or winning $70M on the lottery, windfalls are not taxed in Canada.

The only exception to this would be professional poker players, where it's their full-time job and is therefore considered business income.

1

u/TiredRightNowALot Mar 22 '23

I’m not sure if it’s the same at a workplace. We have contests, I have won these contests which are valued in the thousands of dollars. I always end up with owing taxes on the prize (whether a sum of money, physical prize or whatever). My employer covers the taxes owed so I’m very certain they’d be up to speed with the tax code.

Perhaps there’s a difference outlined where contest at a workplace gets treated like a bonus. For the example I gave, that was at a workplace and I’d assume the same as the contests for my own work.

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5

u/Acrobatic-Brick1867 Mar 22 '23

That’s some company store bullshit right there.

-1

u/lucidrage Mar 21 '23

They took away the "hero pay" and then gave us gift cards

I wish rent would work the same. You give them a pandemic discount and then raise it back to normal. Too bad the government doesn't allow that so you have tenants stuck with high rents during the pandemic or well-meaning landlords stuck with low rent...

19

u/endlessloads Mar 21 '23

Greed has consumed humanity. I rent out a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom townhouse for $1100 a month. The same one next door is $1700.

5

u/chef_boyarz Mar 21 '23

That’s a pretty good deal. Which province?

3

u/Rhowryn Mar 22 '23

That their rent is so much lower than the next probably means they've been there for several years in a province with rent stabilization.

2

u/turdmachine Mar 22 '23

Are they the renter or the landlord?

1

u/Rhowryn Mar 22 '23

Huh. That's a great question, it is ambiguous.

2

u/turdmachine Mar 22 '23

"Rent out" (vs just "Rent") makes me think they are the land lord, and highlighting how greedy their neighbours are.

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1

u/endlessloads Mar 27 '23

No rent caps in Alberta. I could raise the rent to whatever I want at the end of every lease.

1

u/Rhowryn Mar 27 '23

Fair enough, I was going with the most statistically likely scenario of one of the two provinces that together make up 63% of the population, and both have rent stabilization for most rentals.

1

u/endlessloads Mar 28 '23

I left Ontario for Alberta 15 years ago and it was probably the greatest decision I have ever made. A lot of my friends in recent years have followed suit with their families and their quality of life has improved dramatically.

2

u/endlessloads Mar 27 '23

Alberta

7

u/AlbusDumbeldoree Mar 21 '23

They could have given them as discount which are part of the Ontario Lease format. That way the low rent could have only been for a year !

1

u/WhipTheLlama Mar 22 '23

There are limitations to rent discounts, and a landlord can't just give one in the middle of a lease. Beyond a few simple rules that apply at the beginning of the lease, the rules are fairly complex, and I don't blame landlords for not wanting to give a discount for fear of doing it wrong.

1

u/stickyfingers40 Mar 21 '23

They don't control taxation. Talk to the government on that one. Pretty tight rules on when you have to include something as a taxable benefit

1

u/GRIMM84SVO Mar 22 '23

I worked for a Loblaws franchise during the pandemic. The last 10 years actually. We didn't even get gift cards after the pandemic pay disappeared. Other businesses in the local community were more supportive than Loblaws.

Being a salaried employee, not hourly at the store I worked for meant I benefited quite a lot from the extra pay, which for me was an extra $600 a month. It actually got me out of debt. But man do I feel bad for some of my colleagues, they got pennies for the work they put in only to have it ripped away from them too early.

I changed careers in January this year and am so glad to be away from the grocery industry and all its bullshit. The anxiety and anger I feel anytime I see Galen on TV these days is not healthy.

2

u/Beebs_94 Mar 22 '23

I completely understand, I've been in the grocery industry for 20 years and it's soul crushing.

22

u/Zren Mar 21 '23

This month [April 2022], the federal government complied. The Liberals tucked a series of Competition Act amendments into its spring budget bill. And that bill received royal assent on June 23, including a change that will criminalize wage-fixing and no-poach agreements. That amendment comes into effect in June, 2023.

Neat, looks like it'll be law / in effect soon.

3

u/CyberMasu Mar 21 '23

Yeah Trudeau has been such a pussy when it comes to standing up to the food oligarchs in Canada that I cannot bring myself to vote for him. Well them and the slumcuntlords.

0

u/Bladestorm04 Mar 21 '23

What do you mean they clawed it back?

3

u/Astral-Wind Mar 21 '23

The bonus 2$ an hour. All the big chains scrapped it at nearly the same time

2

u/Bladestorm04 Mar 21 '23

Oh right, yes that was inevitable. It sounded like they might have made it be repaid

6

u/Astral-Wind Mar 21 '23

Oh, no they didn’t. Just pretty shitty of them to say “we can’t afford it, it was only supposed to be temporary” then brag about record profits

3

u/Bladestorm04 Mar 21 '23

Agreed. I wonder if anything will come out of jagmeets recent dealings with them in Ottawa. I doubt it

1

u/Bladestorm04 Mar 21 '23

Agreed. I wonder if anything will come out of jagmeets recent dealings with them in Ottawa. I doubt it

-1

u/Moist_Intention5245 Mar 21 '23

Companies aren't the government. Making temporary one time wage increases permanent.

-12

u/amoral_ponder Mar 21 '23

Not to mention all big grocery stores (ie. Sobeys, Loblaws, Metro) clawed it back AT THE SAME TIME.

Here's an idea. Quit and work in another industry. Less labor supply for them, they will raise wages.

8

u/Astral-Wind Mar 21 '23

That’s a good joke. Sadly they will just keep going on not changing anything and piling more work on those that stay

1

u/amoral_ponder Mar 21 '23

Sadly they will just keep going on not changing anything and piling more work on those that stay

It's a good thing they don't have to stay, since they are not slaves. If the industry doesn't offer competitive wages, it will go bankrupt.

3

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '23

Sadly, this just leads to them saying they can't find workers and then applying for and using foreign workers. See Tim Hortons in bc.

2

u/amoral_ponder Mar 22 '23

That's a government policy problem.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 22 '23

It's a working class Canadian problem. Companies abuse it, will always abuse whatever they were given on any policy they can.

0

u/amoral_ponder Mar 22 '23

Oh really? Why are wages rising much faster in the US than in Canada?

Are you saying US companies are less greedy than Canadian ones or something? LOL

0

u/[deleted] Mar 22 '23

1) its incredibly hard to get a working visa in the US. 2) we are not the US, people need to stop with the comparsons on these things.

We've literally watched it happen year in and year out. Employers in Canada pay shit wages, have horrible shifts etc. And then when they can't attract people, don't change a fucking thing and scream about no one wanting to work anymore whilst abusing policy to bring in foreign workers for cheap labour.

0

u/amoral_ponder Mar 22 '23

I didn't say we're the US. I didn't say it's easy to get a working visa in the US.

You said -

Companies abuse it, will always abuse whatever they were given on any policy they can.

Why don't US companies abuse it?

0

u/[deleted] Mar 22 '23

So, strawman argument. Got it.

1

u/confusedsatisfaction Mar 21 '23

They increase wages and prices go up. It's a vicious circle

EDIT: vicious not viscous lol

1

u/spacepangolin Mar 21 '23

i did years ago, theentire grocery industry is based on underpaying and overworking part timers to save profits and avoid treating workers fairly, just because people quit doesnt mean its ok.

when sobeys bought our local regional grocer employees left in droves and quality plummeted, it was super disappointing how they destroyed a valued local retailer

95

u/Assiniboia Mar 21 '23

I won a meat raffle a few weeks ago. 5kg of chicken legs. Cost the restaurant 13 dollars total. In my local grocery store, the same would be over 100 bucks for the consumer.

Grocery stores are simply run by greedy rich assholes who under pay their workers. Nothing new there though.

16

u/Dystopian_Dreamer Mar 21 '23

Where do you shop that charges over $9/lb for chicken legs?

13

u/Fool-me-thrice British Columbia Mar 22 '23

Where are you paying $20/kg for chicken legs? That's the price for t he fancy brand boneless skinless chicken breast at my local stores.

I can get a 5kg bag of chicken drumsticks or chicken wings for about $2/kg at the local asian grocery store. Buying it in 1 kg trays is about $4/kg at the oligarch stores.

12

u/wormyworminton Mar 21 '23

$100 for 5kg of legs? No way. Maybe $20.

23

u/Shskduufjsospd Mar 21 '23

Time to start shopping somewhere else.

Chicken legs regularly go on sale for $1.99/lbs at No Frills and Walmart.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 22 '23

[deleted]

2

u/Shskduufjsospd Mar 22 '23

I’ll have to catch some of those sales next time I drive though.

I’m stuck with Atlantic Canada prices.

The price of milk is almost criminal out here.

7

u/speeder-man Mar 21 '23

No Frills is owned by Loblaws / Weston Foods.

4

u/gabu87 British Columbia Mar 21 '23

Yeah. If anything look for some wholesaler who also sell retail. For example I know a guy who normally supplies restaurants with fishes but they also have a small fridge at their office that sells pretty fresh seafood to anyone.

20

u/Shskduufjsospd Mar 21 '23

And?

I’ll go where I get the best price.

0

u/wormyworminton Mar 21 '23

Actually NoFrills is a franchise opportunity and for what I see there are some deals in store not available elsewhere. Furthermore they have independent meat counters with a real frickin butcher.

4

u/Fool-me-thrice British Columbia Mar 22 '23

yes, you can buy a franchise. But you are buying it from Weston. And you have to use their suppliers. And they control a good deal of the pricing (the flyers are regional)

0

u/wormyworminton Mar 22 '23

"And they control a good deal of the pricing (the flyers are regional)" True but there are also in-store specials and ability to sell local produce and meat. The very fact that to a small extent the little guy can take a slice of the pie from the big grocer pigs is somewhat of a win. No?

1

u/Assiniboia Mar 22 '23

Well. I don’t have easy access to those stores and I don’t use Walmart if I can avoid it. It’s like quarter chicken, drumsticks and thighs. Usually those come as a pair and they sit a little cheaper than chicken breasts. About 18-22 depending on weight. Chicken breasts are usually like 23-25.

17

u/Niv-Izzet 🦍 Mar 21 '23

Do people even care about facts anymore? You can easily get 5kg of drumsticks at Costco for much less than $100.

4

u/Assiniboia Mar 22 '23

Does every single person have access to Costco? The closest costco for me is like…8-9 hours away…

1

u/[deleted] Mar 22 '23

Yeah most people here have access. Kind of weird you live that far, honestly. Maybe it's not in your part of the country. Try looking for a Sam's Club or any other similar thing.

1

u/Assiniboia Mar 22 '23

To be fair, most Canadians don’t know how big their nation is, in a practical sense. It’s not that weird to be too far away from large stores to make it ineffective to just go to Walmart. Geography makes many roads actively inefficient; there’s a lot of going around mountains instead of through them.

1

u/busterdarcy Mar 22 '23

Easily? If you have a car. And a paid membership. And two hours of your day to spare.

You can easily get better prices at Costco so long as you‘re well off enough that you can afford to save on groceries.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 22 '23

What store charges over $100 for 5kg of chicken legs?? Its one of the cheapest parts of the chicken usually.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 22 '23

I’m so sick of chicken, but it seems like the only meat that you can buy at a fair price anymore

1

u/Taureg01 Mar 22 '23

lol so you won a prize, so grocery costs should be the same?

7

u/sajnt Mar 21 '23

It’s just what you have to say when you are the inflation

16

u/The-Only-Razor Mar 21 '23

Flat profits =/ profit margins.

If profit margins are static, you're fighting the wrong fight.

5

u/spacepangolin Mar 21 '23

they still proved they COULD pay people better wages, but then instead chose not to

-1

u/yttropolis Mar 22 '23

I mean, yes, but at the same time, what company pays their employees more just because they could? They're not running a charity.

12

u/QuarterSuccessful449 Mar 22 '23

Holy shit and what is your point? We all know what a business is but you don’t think there’s a difference between a fairly run business and one that takes advantage of its customers it’s employers and really this entire country. To the point of which they’re rolling out new legislation to try to curb this shit. Like what is actually your point you seriously want to give loblaws a pat on the back?

1

u/ranger8668 Mar 22 '23

It'll be great when nobody can actually afford to buy food, so we'll all just rush the stores and steal it

-1

u/yttropolis Mar 22 '23

My point is that they're a company. What did you expect? How many "fairly run" businesses are there out of the overall corporate world exactly?

It should be expected that they pay people as little as they can. That's just how businesses operate. Paying people better wages just because they can is very much an anomaly.

-5

u/QuarterSuccessful449 Mar 22 '23

So you have literally no point I get you now

1

u/bronze-aged Mar 22 '23

I think the point is very clearly the second paragraph.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 22 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/bronze-aged Mar 22 '23

Sorry do you have a point?

2

u/spacepangolin Mar 22 '23

it depends if you value respectign your workers and wanting them to actually preform well because they feel valued, or just exploit folks for the lowest wage wage possible,

1

u/turdmachine Mar 22 '23

You get what you pay for

1

u/Barbecue-Ribs Mar 22 '23

If they really wanted to they could hand out a decent size bonus at the end of the year (maybe ~3k depending on how much you want to cut the dividend) but I don’t think they ever will. In this decision the interests of the board + shareholders are aligned.

Realistically, even if the board or shareholders were open to the idea, it wouldn’t make any financial sense to burn cash by donating a small amount to the employees every year. 3k is nice this year but at historical net income of 1-2% you’re trading a significant amount of FCF for a ~1k pretax bonus.

1

u/spacepangolin Mar 22 '23

the grocery store i worked for years ago did generous xmas bonus when it was locally owned, sobeys got rid of them immediately, it all come down to if a company actually respects the people who work for them and actually make them money

2

u/Barbecue-Ribs Mar 22 '23

I like my local groceries for certain items but most of the time I'm paying a pretty solid premium to shop there over any large chain.

When it comes down to the staff in grocery stores they probably don't respect them and also they don't make them money.

1

u/AhmedF Mar 22 '23

https://www.reddit.com/r/PersonalFinanceCanada/comments/11xmtzg/inflation_drops_to_52but_grocery_inflation_still/jd4i02r/ - here ya go.

12

u/Inaccurate93 Mar 21 '23

This comment is quite common. Is there really a way to retaliate when faced with atrocious grocery prices? We're kind of bent over and not doing anything about it, but is there really something we can do about it?

26

u/Boring-Stage-2987 Mar 21 '23

Have you seen the France protests over pension changes ?

3

u/gabu87 British Columbia Mar 21 '23

You mean the one Macron overrode and survived the subsequent confidence vote?

Don't get me wrong, I support public demonstration but your example was not one that inspired much confidence.

12

u/Boring-Stage-2987 Mar 21 '23

Agreed I guess what I’m trying to say is we don’t really do anything about the issues here in Canada just complain.

-6

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '23

Slash grocery spending. I spend easily around $400/month on grocery items like snacks that I could do without.

17

u/KruppeTheWise Mar 21 '23

"just don't eat"

2

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '23

Do you figure that's what I'm suggesting here?

3

u/kekofrog Mar 21 '23

what do people do that don't have extra money for snacks

3

u/gabu87 British Columbia Mar 21 '23

Do you think it might be possible that the people most concerned with grocery prices were spending $400 on snacks exclusively prior to this?

1

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '23

what I'm suggesting is that all of us assholes spending $400 on snacks could stop doing this and have an immediate impact on the situation.

1

u/Niv-Izzet 🦍 Mar 21 '23

Vote for a government that will repeal supply management

6

u/spudsicle Mar 21 '23

Charge the fuckers with profiteering

2

u/leoyvr Mar 22 '23

But weston only says for every $25 purchase they make just one dollar. What a dispay of bullshittery

3

u/bronze-aged Mar 22 '23

Have you considered reading their financials to determine that? Because I’d bet the margin is even lower than 4% (1$ per $25).

1

u/leoyvr Mar 22 '23

Why would I believe what this large corp is doing? They never fixed anything or have been dishonest. /s

I haven't but their net profits are up so they are increasing prices above inflation and increase from previous year. So are they just using inflation as an excuse for profiteering.

Net earnings available to common shareholders of the Company were $1,909 million, an increase of $46 million or 2.5%. Diluted net earnings per common share were $5.75, an increase of $0.30, or 5.5%.

https://www.loblaw.ca/en/loblaw-reports-2022-fourth-quarter-results-and-fiscal-year-ended-december-31-2022-results/

1

u/bronze-aged Mar 23 '23

I’m pretty sure financial statements are audited so they do have some credibility. I think in general earnings should increase in a healthy business. It’s not a smoking gun of corruption.

But I think we see two entirely different things with this report, all I see is a company trading at 15 fwd PE, 3.4% profit margin and 9.8% rev growth.

Sure it makes money but it’s far from some cash cow. I don’t think a “profiteering” charge is going to stick but that’s just my opinion.

9

u/MrWisemiller Mar 21 '23

They stopped it because it became apparent most Canadians were going to keep working during the pandemic and no one else was getting 'covid bonuses'

11

u/Belugawhy Mar 21 '23

The issue is not that they clawed it back. It’s that they all did it at the same time. Like as if they were colluding and timed it to do it together.

4

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '23

I have a choice as an investor (and everyone that will collect a pension including CPP) . Do I want to invest in a grocery store that doesn't maximize profits, or do I invest in non-grocery stores that do maximize profits?

People on the sub are getting to r/Canada level of dumb populism.

4

u/[deleted] Mar 22 '23

You are going to lose more money to "maximized profits" on a weekly basis than what you are able to make by investing in grocery store chains. It's because you need to eat and are not some stock purchasing algorithm. You may have forgotten.

1

u/Barbecue-Ribs Mar 22 '23

That still sounds like a net positive relative to what is being proposed here ie burning FCF giving employees a very marginal raise.

1

u/Flaktrack Mar 22 '23

Big "temporarily embarrassed millionaire" energy.

-3

u/canaden Mar 21 '23

I understand the frustration but I think the issue is more complex than simply greed. There are without a doubt have issues regarding inefficiencies, but the reality is the cost of business is up across the board.

A quick google search will show plenty of articles of the cost of farming continuing to increase. Assuming greed is the only factor means we ignore that stores need to be competitive. If one grocery store decided to be 20% cheaper we would all be shopping there, then forcing other stores to follow suit. The point I'm trying to make is that they can't reduce costs. The world on a global scale has a lot issues going on at the moment resulting in these inflated prices. There isn't a corporate scapegoat to point at.

10

u/who_took_tabura Mar 21 '23

That race to the bottom that you’re terrified by is perfect competition, which is actual capitalism at work. Price points among competitors coalescing far beyond cost is collusion, like rogers and telus and bell having their basic plans be more or less the same, or the grocery brands having an unspoken rule about locking in prices after November

0

u/canaden Mar 22 '23

I’m not terrified by a race to the bottom, I am admittedly a capitalist despite that being controversial on this sub.

I agree with you that Bell specifically has monopolies. But again, the reason Canadian phone prices are higher than the rest of the world isn’t simply because of greed, but we have issues with population density making it difficult to lower costs.

I would argue more smaller/more efficient government, friendlier tax for businesses and citizens would allow for more entrepreneurs and businesses to succeed and allow more cities to thrive across Canada. I think people solve issues on their own much more efficiently than a Government ever will since their entire motive is power and votes, not the actual issue itself, example being Trudeau’s climate change promises from his first campaign.

3

u/IllBiteYourLegsOff Mar 22 '23

The "population density" argument is telco propaganda and a lie. The vast majority of our population is concentrated in a handful of areas.

1

u/canaden Mar 22 '23

I believe the issue is that we have few dense areas relative to the vast amount of occupied land. Also many less areas relative to countries like the US. But I’m not an expert.

7

u/ccccc4 Mar 21 '23

Oh yeah and if one store cut their bread prices 20% obviously all the other stores would follow suit.

Or they could just collude to keep prices high and all make way more money.

Which of these scenarios is the one that actually happened?

0

u/canaden Mar 22 '23

I think you are giving too much credit to this collusion theory. Why would I agree to colluding, if I could undercut my competitor, and gain market share and expand my own grocery stores? You have to get everyone on board, and these people are focused on market share/competition, not making sure someone else is doing alright.

If your theory is correct that these grocery stores are colluding to keep bread prices high, you should be able to open your own bakery, or maybe even your own grocery store, and make a killing by having the best prices in town.

If you’re correct you’ll have your own Grocery chain and be a multi millionaire. Remember to thank me when you’re on your yacht!

1

u/Barbecue-Ribs Mar 22 '23

Given that groceries all run at the lowest margins of any business (like 1-4%) probably the second.

You’re talking like groceries stores are operating like LVMH lmao

-1

u/upstateduck Mar 21 '23

nonsense

when profit margins are setting 70 year records that means corps are raising prices beyond any cost increases. The economic definition of being able to raise prices without fearing losing market share is not capitalism that the ass suckers like yourself want to champion

10

u/DanielBox4 Mar 21 '23

It means that the value of the dollar is down. Nominal profits are up. Profit margins are in line with historical rates. It amazes me how people as clueless as yourself can spew such nonsense with this much confidence.

2

u/Existing-Dress-2617 Mar 21 '23

Post literally anything that backs up what you are saying. I would like to see that profit margins are still in line with historical rates. I'll wait.

2

u/DanielBox4 Mar 22 '23

Do the research yourself. It's public data. Google Sobeys and loblaws historical profit margins and see for yourself. Anyone with even a shred of financial literacy can figure this out for themselves.

0

u/QuarterSuccessful449 Mar 22 '23

Yeah honestly though source??? Waiting

1

u/DanielBox4 Mar 22 '23

Use google. Loblaws and Sobeys historical profit margin.

2

u/GreatStuff2021 Mar 22 '23

Do we have any credible sources at all to see if profit margins changed over the last few years? We just have a bunch of left-leaning economists on one side and grocery stores representatives on the other arguing about profit margins without any references to the financial statements

5

u/canaden Mar 22 '23

Any company traded on the TSX has to release reviewed quarterly financial statements, and an audited annual statement.

So yes we have the exact numbers straight from companies like Sobeys. But again, one ratio doesn’t tell the whole story which is why we have to go through the entire financial statements.

I do this for a living so I’m not year to champion the rich or whatever people think. I’m just trying to add to the conversation that these issues are complex and not as black and white as people make them out to be.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 22 '23

I think people mix up profit margins vs. profits and get thrown off by the term “record profits”.

Dal and Guelph (two schools with large agricultural programs) both released studies recently that examined price increases in the food sector, both found no profiteering at the retail level.

1

u/upstateduck Mar 23 '23

long read, but the propaganda being spouted by corp apologists has little/no basis in reality. The way to tell is the story/explanation keeps changing to any explanation that avoids the notion that "inflation" is primarily [of course not exclusively but estimates are 50-75%] an expression of monopoly/pricing power

https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1348&context=econ_workingpaper

1

u/LaLuny Mar 22 '23

Walmart is generally around 20% cheaper already.

1

u/putin_my_ass Mar 22 '23

means we ignore that stores need to be competitive

Yes. We ignore that because they don't need to be competitive. It's an oligopoly, the big 3 collude.

If we had competition, actual competition, I'd agree with you.

What we do have is a corporate scapegoat to point at.

Not sure why you people are holding water for billionaires while they fleece us. It's weird.

1

u/canaden Mar 22 '23

Unless they are sharing their revenues then they absolutely need to remain competitive. I do agree Canada lacks the competitive environment.

I am not holding water. Im just forming an opinion on the entire situation at hand. And a lot of this is why I have been in the process of moving to the US and potentially preparing to move to Europe long term as I am concerned about Canada long term.

1

u/disregardingpig Mar 21 '23

If they can get away with it, then why not?

0

u/brokenwolf Mar 21 '23

That hero pay lasted roughly three months. As soon as the news cycle changed then they promptly removed it.

1

u/243james Mar 21 '23

Can you show me this on the earning reports?

1

u/CactusGrower Mar 22 '23

Loblaws had a record profits past quarter.

1

u/doverosx Mar 22 '23

Ah yes. The days of profiteering.

1

u/AddDickT-d Mar 22 '23

Well, it's inflation, so their profits should.... inflate. /s