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.



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j'ai les clés · 84w
LOL. I love it how people go “Checkmate, Alden” without realizing that’s a laughable self-own. Slay, Queen.
bookguy · 84w
The amount of shrink at my local grocery is insane, literally watching people walk out without paying constantly
charliesurf · 84w
What the mob has learned (from the communists) to believe without reason, who could demolish it in their eyes with reasons? - Nietzsche -parentheses my own-
Base Layer Capital · 84w
Spot on.
Scale Bar · 84w
The best part was the guy invalidating your data because your logo was embedded on the y charts graphic. Checkmate squared! 😂
Bewlay · 84w
We have the same issue in Australia; government blaming the supermarkets for price gouging and “inflating” prices but Aussy supermarkets have razor thin margins too
Fotoart · 84w
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.
Bradster · 84w
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 · 84w
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 · 84w
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 · 84w
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 · 84w
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 · 84w
great article Lyn. thanks. glad i follow you
M-Vil · 84w
socialism is a mental illness
Sam Wouters · 84w
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
Dakota · 84w
The last slide shows (I think) that Pepsi and General Mills have profit margins of 10% and 12% , respectively. Is that large or not?
pleb123 · 84w
Price controls on the horizon should heighten the urgency with which you prioritize self sufficiency. This is like an immune response to a cold. I like price controls, because they lead to an acute collapse in the standard of living of the Average Joe. This creates the conditions that accelerate ...
Smoked Gruyere · 84w
then how to explain all supermarket chains having such higher profits now than 4 years ago? like hundreds of millions of dollars more?
bitBeaker · 84w
https://m.primal.net/KChB.jpg
Digital Au · 84w
“People with no experience in business, no knowledge of history, and utterly ignorant of economics do not hesitate to leap from high prices to greedy profit-makers. Many of these ignorant people are on nationwide television and some are in Congress.” - Thomas Sowell
Jeremy · 84w
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...
theELK · 81w
As someone just recently exiting the US PR and corporate communications industry, I can attest to the fact that PR is nothing more than modern-day bread and circuses. A vapid distraction designed to obscure the populace from the fact that centralized banking is printing fiat currency at a rampant an...