Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s convocation of the leading food retail companies in order to scold them about rising food prices is one of the most egregious acts of political flimflam in this country in many years. Last year the combined profits of the three largest grocery retailers (Loblaw, Sobeys, and Metro) was $3.6 billion, but that was against $100 billion in sales. That is not, by general corporate standards, a high return, especially as it is a business that is unusually vulnerable to inventory shrinkage — outright theft by employees and customers is generally more than one per cent of overall sales.
