Why we need Bitcoin: Canada Fed is blaming and threatening Grocers... 🤯😧 \ stacker news ~bitcoin

Obviously price gouging, especially when it comes to an essential area like food, is a cause for concern. Especially when there isn't a ton of competition between grocery conglomerates.

But to gaslight the public and try to place the blame for rising costs squarely on these companies seems wrong too. Inflation was caused in Canada by government spending and quantitative easing/cheap money printing. Period.

I don't have a quick answer how to stop price gouging but this isn't it. Threatening taxes and price controls. Nooo!

This us a result of such an artifical system like fiat.

The whole system needs to blow up but instead the federal governments just want more control and more taxes to keep the entie charade going.

So dystopian. 😧🤯😖

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529 sats \ 11 replies \ @grayruby 15 Sep 2023

There is no price gouging. Grocery stores run on 2-3% margins on their core goods. The majority of their profits come from kickbacks from brands and all the other crap they sell which they can make huge margins on.

500 sats \ 6 replies \ @satoshi_in_the_classroom OP 15 Sep 2023

Disagree. Read my comment below. Sobeys +profit YOY by ~50%. 😳 there is a concentration of grocers in Canada that drive lower prices and even then... read my comment below.

"Gouge" in the wrong word. But increase prices out of correlation and line with costs of production is more accurate.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @newnym 15 Sep 2023

"Read my comment below. Sobeys +profit YOY by ~50%" That in it of itself doesn't mean much. What is their net income over revenue ratio?

2 sats \ 0 replies \ @satoshi_in_the_classroom OP 16 Sep 2023

Good point.

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @grayruby 15 Sep 2023

Sobeys or parent company empire? Please link data.

10 sats \ 2 replies \ @satoshi_in_the_classroom OP 15 Sep 2023

Most Canadians colloquially call the conglomerate "Sobeys" which is what I was referring to. Out east they have a chain but across Canada they have other brands. Safeway, thriftys etc.

Financials are public on their website. Shell helped but even still. The company is crushing it lol.

100 sats \ 1 reply \ @grayruby 15 Sep 2023

Yes, I understand but Empire has been restructuring for years and acquiring brands so if I don't know if the numbers you were referring to are comp store sales or inclusive of a brand acquisition.

If I own the local coffee shop and my sales are 1M this year but buy the coffee shop down the street that generates 500k sales I just increased revenue by 50% even if each individual store didn't generate any revenue increase.

So if we aren't talking comp store sales the data is murky and susceptible to false narratives. I am not saying that's the case here but would need to look at the financial reports to determine.

40 sats \ 0 replies \ @satoshi_in_the_classroom OP 15 Sep 2023

That's a great point! I always teach my students to scrutinize stats. Yes the specific data is more forgiving. Esp since grocers often dip in and out of gas station business. Which sobeys/empire did for a profit. So the narrative sounds worse that it is.

I have no problem with charging whatever they want mostly.

But there are only a few grocer conglomerates now in Canada. Which sets an intersting stage.

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @nkmg1c_ventures 15 Sep 2023

There is definitely some price gouging. Not all supermarket / food companies are the same. Some, like Loblaws, actually have gotten away with slap on the wrists for price fixing, even before the COVID lockdowns and inflation running up etc.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @satoshi_in_the_classroom OP 15 Sep 2023

I agree! It's not always a black and white issue. There's some low key price fixing and gouging going on but not extreme or across the board by any means. In an open market anyone can charge whatever they like. But monopolies of an essential good like food are where it also gets complicated.

Yeah I think loblaws was fixing bread prices right in collusion.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @nkmg1c_ventures 15 Sep 2023

But yes, the "price gouging" rhetoric is not as convincing after all the monetary inflation. Bitcoiners know about volume of money and devaluation, most non-coiners don't even think about it in those terms. Many people really do just think "landlords are greedy" or "grocery stores are greedy" and don't see the knock on effects of inflationary monetary policy.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @satoshi_in_the_classroom OP 16 Sep 2023

Yes agreed totally. Landlords are def other the issue.

10 sats \ 4 replies \ @om 15 Sep 2023

Obviously price gouging, especially when it comes to an essential area like food, is a cause for concern. I don't have a quick answer how to stop price gouging but this isn't it.

I don't believe that food price gouging exists. Prices are usually set at a point of maximum profitability except where a social concern exists, for example, a sole producer of an important medicine might price it lower than the maximum profitability point due to social concern. However, the food market is very far from a monopoly, so food producers can't artificially lower their profits because that would instantly kick them out of the market. Therefore food prices are always at the point of maximum profitability.

100 sats \ 3 replies \ @satoshi_in_the_classroom OP 15 Sep 2023

Agree with profitability... but also disagree. There are only a handful of grocers conglomerates that can offer lower prices in Canada. Then there are all the independent ones with higher prices overall.

One of Canada's largest grocers just posted a ~50% YOY profit revenue increase from last year. 🤔😳

Prices of some goods on the shelves haven't matched inflation or anywhere near it... more than doubling over the past few years. And, importantly, increases in costs of production aren't matching the increased prices consumers are facing either.

If costs to produce X goods didn't double YOY, and inflation didn't double YOY... then what accounts for more than doubling of small consumer goods YOY?

Nothing. They upped prices for more profit. Maybe "gouging" is the wrong word here.

I'm not disagreeing with their ability to charge whatever they want... but I also understand the public's anger at it.

Esp. since there is a concentration of grocers.

5 sats \ 0 replies \ @SatoshisSkeleton 15 Sep 2023

💯

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @om 15 Sep 2023

You imagine 50% profit increase as a big number but that might just be from 2% to 3%. Or from 0.2% to 0.3%. This number by itself is meaningless.

They upped prices for more profit.

That is a perfectly valid move in a market economy: prices should be expected to be at the point of maximum profitability. You say that they raised prices for no reason other than to make more profit, but that would imply that before the raise the prices were below the point of maximum profitability, which I find hard to believe. It is more likely that the prices changed exactly because the point of maximum profitability shifted, and that can't just happen for no reason at all, and neither can it happen just because the company really wants it to happen. There must be some objective factors behind it.

I'd guess it's likely that the production costs rose. For example:

Prices paid by farmers for fertilizer were up by over four-fifths (80.8%) in the second quarter of 2022 compared with the second quarter of 2021. https://www.statcan.gc.ca/o1/en/plus/2413-growing-and-raising-costs-farmers

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @satoshi_in_the_classroom OP 16 Sep 2023

Great points. Stats are subjective.

5 sats \ 1 reply \ @DarthCoin 15 Sep 2023

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @satoshi_in_the_classroom OP 16 Sep 2023

😆

5 sats \ 5 replies \ @DarthCoin 15 Sep 2023

Wait... people still live in Canada? I thought that all of them emigrated to El Salvador

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @grayruby 15 Sep 2023

Yes many of us still live in the communist republic of Canada. Beautiful country. Sad how brainwashed the populous has become.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @DarthCoin 15 Sep 2023

Seriously now I am strongly recommend reading this sarcastic and comic guide dedicated to all canadians https://darthcoin.substack.com/p/how-to-escape-to-el-salvador-shtf

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @satoshi_in_the_classroom OP 15 Sep 2023

Oh are there lots of expats down there?

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @DarthCoin 15 Sep 2023

Did you watched and follow Francesco @moneydelics group in El Salvador helping people escaping from Chinada ? https://t.me/bitcoinersinelsalvador https://www.youtube.com/c/Moneydelics/videos

It's a full exodus... no joke

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @satoshi_in_the_classroom OP 15 Sep 2023

No will check it out thanks

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @nkmg1c_ventures 15 Sep 2023

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5 sats \ 0 replies \ @satoshi_in_the_classroom OP 16 Sep 2023

Lots to unpack here. Lots are sold a bill of goods.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @9717fc0878 15 Sep 2023

expanding the money supply by as much as we have done lately could hardly lead to any other conclusion than price going ever upward

5 sats \ 0 replies \ @SatoshisSkeleton 15 Sep 2023

💯

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @satoshi_in_the_classroom OP 16 Sep 2023

Yes. It's wild to be living thru

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @faithandcredit 15 Sep 2023

Heh they alienated oil and gas industry too, so much so that nobody is willing to invest the amount of money it takes to build the infrastructure like refineries and so on. Then the price on gas goes up and the dimwits in gov who is actually responsible is blaming the oil and gas companies. We just gotta hit rock bottom now, the dimwits are multiplying still, and its going to worse before it gets better.

5 sats \ 0 replies \ @SatoshisSkeleton 15 Sep 2023

💯

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @satoshi_in_the_classroom OP 16 Sep 2023

The oil industry is a wild rabbit hole I haven't been down far enough