Prices are very bad here, also, but restaurants are ridiculous. I paid $36 the other day for a pizza I picked up myself
We’re starting to get off track here, but I think there can be fundamental differences that make this an invalid analogy. Yes, employees are capable of greed, too, but that happens most often when “employee” refers not to an individual, but to a powerful and intransigent union, many of which have no more claim to moral behaviour than the employer organizations they’re always fighting with.
But there’s also the question of why employees often seek higher salaries. Often they have families and find it difficult to make ends meet or afford themselves a few simple pleasures. What, OTOH, is a corporation’s basic intent in arbitrarily raising prices when they’re already profitable (or paying employees as little as they can get away with)? When I was young and didn’t have a family and had my first job at a university doing the things that I loved, I frankly couldn’t care less what I was paid.
Most countries are doing the same things. Doesn’t change the fact ours is doing them too.
Greed was also generally true before two or three years ago. That hasn’t changed. What has?
No, but what the hell does that have to do with anything I typed? If you want to know why food prices are going up slightly faster than inflation overall, that’s a major reason. That’s fact.
If the government came out and said “Look, in part, food prices are going up because of carbon taxes, and we’re not going to bullshit you. What we’ll do/are doing about that is (insert greenshifted taxation idea.) But we have to do this.” that would be an eminently respectable position. It would be honest, clear, and apolitical. Instead they (well, some of them more than others) blame the people who sell us food, which is political, dishonest, and evasive.
You may wish to consider the possibility that such an attitude is astonishingly rare, even among those who don’t have a family. For most people who have ever walked the earth, how much they get paid matters a great deal. Even a small raise helps. Asking “why employees seek higher salaries” strikes me as asking “what color is the sky?”
People and companies make decisions that enhance their self interest, and in many situations, that often means seeking more money. Why does a profitable corporation want more profit? Because they exist to be profitable and they don’t know if the good times will last. (And still, no one will explain what the “right” level of profit is.) Why does an employee want a higher salary? Because then they can afford more things, or can save for the tough times, or both. There is nothing wrong with doing things that make you more money as long as you don’t steal or cheat.
If federal politicians actually cared about your grocery bill, and I doubt they actually do, they can do things. They can end supply management, which absolutely does cost you money for no really good reason. They can work harder to eliminate provincial trade barriers (I will grant that’s a tough one, but they could try.) Or they could create more tax credits, maybe even targeting food. They could just give people a literal tax deduction on grocery bills or something. They don’t need to preen for the cameras to do those things.
I’m not sure that that’s necessarily “fact” as almost everything is affected by transportation costs. What is unique about food other than the fact that it’s not optional?
Fair enough, although I had assumed (perhaps incorrectly) that you were opposed to the carbon tax on general principle. In any case, let’s not conflate those critics and politicians who feel that grocery retailers like Loblaw are profiteering, with some straw man allegedly claiming that profiteering is the ONLY cause of rising food prices. I don’t know anyone who’s made that claim. Inflation is clearly a factor. The question is, are there other factors, of perhaps a more opportunistic nature?
Sincere question: do you have any comments on the Loblaw profit pattern I presented? To be fair, it’s the overall profit across all their business as well as non-food products in the grocery stores, but still, do you think it can be dismissed entirely?
Food is more fossil-fuel-intensive to produce and distribute than the average product or service. Of course, Canada is more vulnerable to this than some places, because we have greater transportation needs and limits as to what you can grow here.
As an aside, just because it’s interesting, I am doing some work for a company in Ontario that is one of the best greenhouse manufacturers on this continent and holy moly but they build some monster greenhouses; one was ninety ACRES (the entire footprint of Rogers Centre - the whole thing, not just playing surface - is about 15 acres.) But some things will not grow in a northern climate without them.
You’ve just answered your own question in part; “Loblaws” is not just Loblaws, it’s other businesses, including the absolute money-printing machine that is Shoppers Drug Mart.
As to if they’re making a little bit more money off food, here is my honest thought on that: I don’t care. Good for them. They’re a business. Almost everyone in Canada has other shopping options. Anyone around here who shops at Loblaws or Fortinos is paying more for their food on purpose, and that’s their business. If they engage in actual collusion with Sobey’s or whatever again, that’s illegal and should be stamped out, but “they make one percent in gross margin more than I want them to” is honestly really, really dumb. What’s the “correct” amount of profit if it’s not 3.7 percent? Is it 2? 2.8? 1.3? I do know what’s happening right now is not “profiteering” in any meaningful sense of that word.
We have thing that the government can actually do something about with regards to food prices, but they never seem to try those. Ask yourself why they’re holding these hearings instead.
I just wanted to mention a contributing factor that has been mentioned implicitly but not explicitly IMHO. Competition. In most market-based economies, if you had one party selling at say, 4% profit, and the competitor wanted to improve their presence, they’d go for 3% profit and win the game with sales to the consumers advantage.
But over the last few decades, that competition has been largely eliminated. In my city of a few hundred thousand, we’re down to two main chains for groceries (leaving out Walmart and Trader Joes/Whole Foods as different in markets, variety, and ability to serve large populations): Safeway and Kroger. Even 10 years ago there were three including Alberstons (bought out by Safeway).
Now, they don’t have nearly as much need to compete, and they don’t. In fact, they have very complimentary sales, which while of course is heavily influenced by supply, seems to indicate there’s no need to fight the big sales.
And that’s leaving out the newer tendency to do the Black Friday Doorbuster deals: have a huge sale to get people in the door, but always be ‘out of stock’ of the sale items, although part of that is of course consumer hoarding.
So yeah, the greed isn’t new, but the lack of competition, even leaving out allegations of price fixing, certainly can be.
Nitpick - Albertsons bought Safeway, not vice versa, but your point stands.
But we’re in a unique situation. During the lockdown, especially, prices rose due to supply chain issues. When the shelves are half bare, you get less pushback selling what is there for slightly higher prices. And supplier prices definitely rose, so it was not like groceries unilaterally rose prices.
Now you can blame it on inflation. But much of the inflation comes from grocery prices, so they’re saying the increases come from them raising prices - especially if supplier prices decrease. IIRC grocery stores traditionally have low margins, so let’s not act as if low margins are making them suffer.
The best thing we can do as consumers is to put pressure on them to lower prices by altering our behavior to buy sale stuff which is closer to the old prices, and refuse to buy at normal prices, wherever possible. Prices around me seem to be moderating in the sense that there are more decent sales than there used to be.
I gracefully accept and appreciate your correction. I saw it happen, all all the stores switched to ‘Safeway’ branding, so my assumptions were apparently incorrect.
A 12 pack of Dr. Pepper/Coke Zero is $8.00 here in Arkansas. I bought some my last trip to the store and I decided it’ll be the last I buy for a while. The prices of other grocery items has gome up quite a bit. A dozen eggs were about $5.00 last time I checked, crackers like Triscuits and Cheez-Its were a little over $5.00 as well. Everything costs a bit more and I’ve stopped buying some things. Like Triscuits and Cheez-Its.
Soft drink prices – especially for Coca-Cola prices – have gone through the roof.
The non-sale price, locally, for Coca-Cola line 2-liter bottles is $3.49. There are frequent sales, but nowhere near as good of sales as in 2020-21. A common cola sale today is ‘Buy Two Get One Free’ – $6.98 for six liters, around $1.16/liter.
They’d occasionally run the ‘Buy Two Get One Free’ offer in 2020-21, too, based on a non-sale price of $2.19 per two-liter. That’s $4.38 for six liters or $0.73/liter. But the sale they really used to run frequently back then – and is rare now, though it popped up before both Thanksgiving and Xmas/New Years – was ‘Buy One Get One Free’ at that $2.19 price point – $4.38 for EIGHT liters or roughly $0.55 liter.
So, generally … today’s sale price for two liter Coca Cola drinks is over twice what it was two years ago.
Just some data, in the last two Shop&Stop orders I had delivered I purchased 2 dozen Eggland’s Best large white eggs for $7.99. That was a 24 egg package. All the other eggs available cost over $5 per dozen, including Eggland’s Best large white eggs at $5.40 for just 1 dozen.
The price of eggs concerns me because it seems like the avian flu pandemic has reached a level that cannot be contained. I hear there is a vaccine available but how do you vaccinate that many birds?
Grain prices are high, war shortages and droughts. The midwest high plains and Texas/Oklahoma are all in heavy drought right now.
I see cereal prices have jumped to 4.50 a box and half&half is 3.95 qt If you can find it. Beef prices are up to 13.99 for steak… billed as a sale.
Here south of Seattle, I got a dozen large eggs for $2.99 at Safeway.
Yeah, I haven’t bought Coca-Cola anytime recently so when I was looking yesterday I couldn’t believe that a 12-pack was $9.69!! 
(I had two 40% coupons so that brought it down to $3.41 plus deposit, but still! Last time I had looked they were around $5-6 full price per case.)
Whoa. Soft drinks aren’t anywhere near that here. That’s shockingly high. I’m angry when they cost $8 for a 12-pack in Canadian dollars.
If I buy three of them I can get them for $7.00 each.
Hell, I can get 'em for six bucks even now at cheap grocery stores. $8 US is nuts, in part because I don’t understand why that would be a regional difference, or why that product would surge so much. It’s not like there’s a Coca Cola Flu or some sort of issue in the ginger ale farms. Most beverages haven’t changed much. Why would soft drinks be more expensive in Arkansas than Ontario?
Pricing isn’t really a function of costs though. My wild guess is that companies have used the fact that consumers have been hearing about inflation relatively incessantly and feel resigned to the rising prices and aren’t really decreasing demand proportional to the price increases. So why not take extra profit?
Could also be the availability of locally-produced cans.
I’m just sensitive to it because our Safeway went downhill when Albertsons took over. Somehow the logistics got screwed up.