This is the trouble with affirmative action; were it not for her spurious claim about high cheekbones, Warren would still be an assistant instructor at a junior college in Texas

Instead, she parlayed her phony victimhood status into a professorship at Harvard and from there to the Senate.

John Hinderaker, Powerlie. Big Grocery”? Seriously?

I’m not saying that Elizabeth Warren is the dumbest person in public life–there is a lot of competition for that title–but let’s just say she is having the worst week. First she accused Elon Musk of being a tax freeloader, just before he disclosed that he will pay $11 billion in taxes this year, more than any American in history, to Warren’s slush fund the federal government. Next she blamed skyrocketing food prices on “Big Grocery.” Seriously.

This is almost beyond belief. The grocery store business is notoriously competitive and relatively unprofitable. David Harsanyi writes that “average margins [come] in at a little over 2 percent,” one of the lowest margins of any industry:

[T]o put the numbers in context, health-care-products companies saw 10.91 percent net profits last year; home furnishers saw 4.63; household-product makers saw 11.71; restaurants saw 5.69; home builders saw 9.04; and online retailers saw 4.95.

The idea that there is such a thing as “Big Grocery” is so laughably stupid that only a far-gone ideologue like Elizabeth Warren could take it seriously. 

The broader point is that, according to the Democrats, we have suddenly been beset by a plethora of capitalist conspiracies, worthy of Chavez/Maduro Venezuela: Big Oil is responsible for exploding gasoline prices, auto companies–according to Warren–are to blame for rapidly rising vehicle prices, semiconductor companies (again, per the eternally clueless Ms. Warren) are behind the chip shortage, and so on.

It is hard to understand why all of these industries would conspire to raise prices at the same time, coinciding–by coincidence, apparently–with the Biden administration’s wild money-printing and spending spree. Hard to explain, that is, if, like Elizabeth Warren, you don’t know a damn thing about economics.

Here’s more from the NR article Hineraker links to:

Big Grocery is one of the least profitable major businesses in the United States, with average margins coming in at a little over 2 percent. Warren has good reason to believe that voters aren’t aware of this fact. Walmart, for example, averages around 2 percent net profit; however, the public believes it pulls in 36 percent.

Even with sales booming, grocery stores are having trouble realizing profits. One reason for this is that it’s one of the most competitive major industries in the country. There are numerous national chains (Kroger, Albertsons), regional chains (Meijers, Publix), higher-end markets (Trader Joe’s, Wegmans, Whole Foods), big box chains (Walmart and Target), and Amazon. Competition has, and does, drive down prices.

Grocery stores have always operated on razor-thin margins; under 2% usually, but “they make it up on volume” — which only works, as the old joke recognized, if they’re operating at some profit, and not a loss.

I can’t say exactly when I first learned this truth about the grocery industry, but it was back when I first started reading the WSJ, so, 14? 15? It’s a good thing I didn’t go to Harvard, or I’d now be as ignorant as that school’s professors.