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It's my understanding that grocers themselves tend to operate is miserably thin margins, especially when they don't have the kind of leverage of large, national chains. I know someone whose family operated a community grocery and they were actually relieved when the building caught fire. They didn't depend on the income, it was just something they took over to serve the community, and it ended up feeling like an anchor around their neck. Seems likely that this is largely an issue that lies with the food producers.
My father says the same thing about the slim margin of oil companies. That being said, when that slim margin is in the billions and millions of people suffer for it, there's room for inquiry.
Idk. I live in a food desert, I've thought about trying to scrape up the capital to start a grocery bus to serve my area, but I'm pretty worried about whether I'd be able to pay my bills if I made it my full time job. I've pretty consistently heard that grocery is a sector that operates on thin margins, and I wonder if the notable disappearance of small neighborhood grocers over the course of my lifetime isn't evidence to that end.
"high grocery prices"
I don't think most people are specifically targeting retailers, who make very little percent per item, as you said. But manufacturers were raising prices before the pandemic, during it, and now...
Thin margins has always just been corporate propaganda. Those margins have widened alongside the wealth gap for decades.
Can't speak for grocery but I owned a bar in my community for a time.
Even if every seat was full every night, once you subtract rent, utilities, labor, taxes, licenses & fees, benefits, accounting costs, maintenance costs, processing fees, etc...
...in multiple years of operating it I put more money into it then I ever got out.
But I loved the customers and it was nice being able to give the employees a job and benefits.
I think it could have made me money if I worked there beyond full time, but I couldn't because I had a day job that paid more.
It also could have made money if I added lottery, but...I couldn't bring myself to do that and a lot of the customers I talked to said it'd ruin the ambiance.
When COVID finally took it, I felt sad, but I, too, felt relieved because it was just one headache after the other with no end in sight. And with rising costs it would have only gotten worse.
I don't have a ton of evidence, but I think this Fall / Winter is going to see another string of closures and my guess is it's because everyone is leveraged to the hilt and Summer isn't going to save them.
And it's sad :(
I work in a family owned grocery. They use MSRP for most things. Distributor prices went up, which made store prices go up. Manufacturing prices probably also went up. But the markup that the store gets is about 10% less now (45% to 35%). They are still well off.