Food prices are a big topic recently where many people are anticipating that prices will go up. You would think in those situations it should be bad for everyone to the point where it’s just one of those things that you need to find a financial solution too. That’s what was interesting as I was reading some news today on how the company Loblaws state that inflation will soon hit its peak where at the same time apparently, they had an increase in profits. It stated that the net available income was $375 million for shareholders.
That of course raised eyebrows with consumers where the assumption is companies are simply taking advantage of the situation to make more money versus there being an actual catastrophic supply issue. I am not really sure how a company can avoid that type of scrutiny unless they are literally losing money to clearly show they are feeling the pinch like everyone else.
You can’t expect a business to lose money of course. The only other way I could imagine where the business could come across neutral is to be a little more transparent if the time is truly that bad by revealing what the at cost expenses are to show they are pricing everything at a rate that enables them to survive. That in itself can be tricky where a lot of people would still think they should run everything like a non profit. But just outright saying one feels bad about recessions but then posts record profits isn’t exactly the best PR move huh?