Damus
Lyn Alden profile picture
Lyn Alden
@LynAlden
I posted a bunch of evidence on Twitter for how 1) grocery stores have razor thin margins, 2) food producer margins are more average but haven't changed in two decades, 3) of course farmers aren't the ones getting rich so 4) no, the food companies are not gouging you on prices.

It's monetary inflation. Grocery stores and food producers are trying to keep up.

Most people agree due to the inherent audience selection, but the tweets kind of went viral and reached a broader political audience, so a bunch of people came in like, "How come they can put chips on sale for 50% sometimes!?!? Checkmate Alden." (it's because they don't understand fixed costs vs cost-of-goods sold) or "How do you know any of the filings are real? What if they're literally all just lying on their audited SEC filings?"

Post-truth, some of people are. The grasping for price controls is the short-time public and political instinct that ultimately makes things worse, every time.



7434❤️100🤙28❤️3👀3🚀2🧡2
Scale Bar · 108w
The best part was the guy invalidating your data because your logo was embedded on the y charts graphic. Checkmate squared! 😂
Fotoart · 108w
Just look at any other country, Argentina for example... I agree, price controls, in fact, any controls are typically artificial (which do not flow with natural progress) which creates a damn, and we all know what happens when a damn gets a crack. Not great for those living underneath it.
nostrich · 108w
A few years back, a friend who ran a successful restaurant in downtown Seattle was telling me their margin was 12% and that was really good compared to the surrounding restaurants running at 6% to 8%. That was pre-covid. Margins are down at least 30% since “recovery”, whatever that means.
AHWhite · 108w
This seems to be mirrored by the development in Europe where overall margins also dropped by 3% despite increasing prices from 2019-2022. interesting and detailed report from McKinsey: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/state-of-grocery-europe-2023-living-with-and-responding-to...
Chad Lupkes · 108w
Until the US Federal government balances the budget, and stops borrowing from bond buyers to pay yesterday's bond buyers, none of this is going to get better. And we have a dosfuctional government that REFUSES to have real discussions about how to balance the budget.
inpc · 108w
I read “the fillings aren’t real” and thought someone was taking you to task on sandwiches and confectionery, something not covered at all in Broken Money…
Bitcopath · 108w
There is cost of storage and for food products best before date is an issue so they do sales. Also they sometimes buy more than required just to meet the required producer or reseller quota. If they buy 100 of the x product they will get additional discounts. So they buy 50 more to meet the 100 quot...
bomboriver · 108w
great article Lyn. thanks. glad i follow you
M-Vil · 108w
socialism is a mental illness
Sam Wouters · 108w
The comment section there is absolutely brutal. It’s a great reminder for all the Bitcoiners that if we don’t patiently educate people, they’re not going to come around to how things really work. https://m.primal.net/KCHv.jpg
Bill Cypher · 108w
The American people do not have the history knowledge of other countries that they need to understand current American economics. Price controls that guarantee a loss for producers means that the producer simply shuts down. Now that product is not available to anyone anywhere at any price. At leas...
DrDanielHodl · 108w
The concept of inflation is not difficult to grasp. What I cannot comprehend is why the average Joe grasps for any other explanation than the right one. The Matrix is strong.
Dakota · 108w
The last slide shows (I think) that Pepsi and General Mills have profit margins of 10% and 12% , respectively. Is that large or not?
HODL · 108w
The government will blame everyone but itself
Dr. Jeff · 108w
Great charts and helpful info, Lyn!
npub1pl4qpkzdff3weqqv2qm3fcjm0hd00pak2hvddp67q9jjkfrjr49sesuk3m · 108w
price controls seem like a way of deflecting responsibility away from government as much as anything else
Nic · 108w
For a couple of years now, we've had a politician, Jagmeet Singh, and his entire political party (NDP) calling for price controls in Canada. In his latest stunt, he spoke directly to the camera while holding up various grocery items, like a bag of apples, and said, "This is $9. It's completely unac...
𝖋𝖎𝖆𝖙𝖉𝖊𝖓𝖎𝖊𝖗 (¯`◕‿◕´¯) · 108w
Fertilizer prices 3X since Ukraine war Gas prices 4X Min wage 2X Funny money printed 20T since pandemic That’s why your cost of of eggs is 3X and bacon 4X and fish 2X etc etc etc
danielec87 · 108w
And it's interesting that they are raising prices at a lower rate than the M2. That means that they are actually doing a good job at keeping prices low.
TheBitcoinBattery · 108w
Ancient Rome also tried to do price controls, they didn't work. This is why teaching history is important to a prosperous society! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edict_on_Maximum_Prices
The Tim · 108w
The most frustrating is when people demand higher wages for farm workers, but say that the prices of food are too high 🤦‍♂️
Brandon Tompkins · 108w
Every time... I'm so glad that a lot of people can see right through all of the communist propaganda.
Smoked Gruyere · 108w
then how to explain all supermarket chains having such higher profits now than 4 years ago? like hundreds of millions of dollars more?
bitBeaker · 108w
https://m.primal.net/KChB.jpg
Jeremy · 108w
In NZ the commies went after the supermarkets for apparently gouging and the “commission” came back with some enormous profit number which made good headlines. However, if you take the number divide it by the population it worked out to be ~$1 per person per day to provide the service “superm...