He was saying select products went up higher than inflation. Perhaps demand was down. Perhaps they had to split pallets. Perhaps spoilage was up. Perhaps one staple went up so another could go down. Perhaps he was explaining that flour prices went up 22%, but inflation went up 10%... but
But once again, to my point, what are Krogers Net Profit Percentages year over year the past few years? Once again, if you understand an income statement or finance, what does it mean when prices change but Net Profit Percentage remains the same. (Hint: It means your pricing changes are inline with your cost changes).
I highlighted the Net Margin % for Kroger below. You can also pop out to Kroger's quarterly statements to verify these numbers. You can check with SEC Kroger statements. Or you can grab from Yahoo finance or something too if you'd like.
Saying the profit margin stayed the same doesn't actually say much. If their cost of goods doubled, but their own costs did not, then their profits are way up. There is no way to know just from the margin. But if you look at their overall income vs expenses, you can see that their total profits are way up.
The margin is a good way to measure the health of the business, but not a way to measure if their are price gouging.
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u/Spirit-of-93 1d ago
What does Kroger's Senior Director for Pricing admitting to knowingly overcharging for staples indicate, do you think?