Are you able to have an adult conversation without having to resort to insults?
My counter-argument is that you're picking arbitrary moments of time, the low-points and then comparing it with the high points.
1/ What time-frame are you looking at when you say "have doubled"? I'm also trying to find out what formula they're using to calculate margins but everything is paywalled. The numbers shown on this site is quite different from the actual financial statements.
i.e. your site shows net margins at 3-4% whereas the financial statements shows EBITDA closer to 10%. If I had to guess, your chart shows the margins after interest, taxes, depreciation, appreciation. This changes things wildly simply because interest rates were super low since 2020 which would result in lower interest payments. Hypothetically, if all things were equal, this alone would increase net margins because interest payments would decrease.
So if you want to compare results, you should at least look at EBIT (earnings before interest payments & taxes).
- This shows margins from 2002 till now. Loblaw margins are in line with historical averages, with the lowest point right at 2019.
- There's still an increase from the start of COVID vs now of from 4.9% to 5.7% EBIT
3/ If we're trying to look at if there's profiteering going on because of COVID, wouldn't it make sense to compare margins right BEFORE covid and compare it with AFTER?
Again, if we look at (source) 2019FY gross margins & net margins, it's 30.9% and 10% respectively. If we then compare it with 2022FY gross margins & net margins, it's 31.6% vs. 10.4%. This is a +2% increase on gross margins, and a 4% increase on net margins.