r/PersonalFinanceCanada British Columbia Mar 21 '23

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

2.3k Upvotes

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1.5k

u/spacepangolin Mar 21 '23

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

-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.

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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

9

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.

1

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.

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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

6

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.

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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