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The Grocery Store Profit Capers
Damn those evil corporations
Last fall, it became common knowledge that Canadian grocery store chains were earning more profits than usual. As most of these chains were public companies that paid dividends to shareholders, it was hard to hide those profits.
The social justice warriors found a new cause. They made so much noise that the Canadian government created a commission to address the “excessive profits.” So we had several weeks of hearings where people who were already earning a healthy salary squared off against the chain CEOs. Consultants from both sides got paid $500 a day (or more) to talk to MPs earning $500 a day. Kind of like the rich against the rich to get richer. To my knowledge, nothing was changed with this commission.
The chains tried to explain that they were just adjusting for inflation. And if they were all thinking in this way, then they anticipated a 6% price increase, but inflation was only 3% so the other 3% went into profits. I’m not quite buying this logic: eventually the free market forces would have seen that extra 3% turn into a price decrease as the chains compete against each other. There is a lag time, and eventually profits would have returned to their normal levels.
I have another reason for these “excessive profits.” The CEOs of the chains would never…
