Path: utzoo!attcan!telly!eci386!woods
From: woods@eci386.uucp (Greg A. Woods)
Newsgroups: ont.general
Subject: Re: Supermarket shakeup?
Summary: profit margins
Message-ID: <1989Nov6.152820.2203@eci386.uucp>
Date: 6 Nov 89 15:28:20 GMT
References: <1989Oct28.204533.16975@telly.on.ca> <1989Oct30.172945.18436@eci386.uucp> <89Nov5.163837est.18444@me.utoronto.ca>
Reply-To: woods@eci386.UUCP (Greg A. Woods)
Distribution: ont
Organization: R. H. Lathwell Associates: Elegant Communications, Inc.
Lines: 21

In article <89Nov5.163837est.18444@me.utoronto.ca> rwh@me.utoronto.ca (Russell Herman) writes:
> In article <1989Oct30.172945.18436@eci386.uucp> woods@eci386.UUCP (Greg A. Woods) writes:
> >
> >The grocery business works (primarily) on a 2% profit margin.  That
>
> Does this 2% include just the retailing profit, or does it include the
> vertically-integrated portions like dairying as well?  2% of gross revenues,
> or assets (including farmland)?  Anyone know the details of the food-processing
> business and the relevant GAAP?  Is this an accounting trick or another
> urban legend?

The 2% is the retail profit, i.e. what Loblaws makes on their gross
revenues.  Remember that most other retailers work with 20% to 40%,
and sometimes 60%.  Note also that this 2% includes the so called
"lost leader" products such as milk, butter, eggs, and Coke!
-- 
						Greg A. Woods

woods@{eci386,gate,robohack,ontmoh,tmsoft,gpu.utcs.UToronto.CA,utorgpu.BITNET}
+1-416-443-1734 [h]  +1-416-595-5425 [w]    VE3-TCP	Toronto, Ontario CANADA