Owner of Loblaws, No Frills, Real Canadian Superstore and Shoppers Drug Mart recorded net earnings of $459-million or $1.47 per share in first quarter
If you think about it the other way around, it’s pretty fucking scary though. Loblaws is extracting the equivalent of $47 in raw profits from every man, woman, and child in the entire country.
Hmm, hard to quantify since I’m not sure how much of the population does a significant portion of grocery and other shopping at Loblaws, but in that context it doesn’t seem so bad. If we taxed those profits completely that only puts an extra $50 in everybody’s pocket each year, which doesn’t seem like it’d really have a large financial impact on many households.
I don’t know what Loblaw’s market share is. Let’s say it’s 30%. That makes it MUCH worse… Neatly $150 for every man woman and child that shops at Loblaws, JUST THIS YEAR.
Maybe $300/month, or $3600/year for groceries. Maybe another $200/year each for prescriptions, alcohol, and general housewares to cover the non-grocery items. $150 profit on $4200 of revenue would be about 4% margin. Doesn’t seem that high to me but I also don’t really know how that compares to other businesses in the same market.
