There are undoubtedly people in the supply chain that benefit from taking advantage of geopolitical and social-economic opportunities.
However, as
Major writes, all is not as it seems. For instance, your local grocery store, in general, the net profit margin at a grocery store is between 1% and 3%.
Net profit is what’s left over after you pay for inventory, utilities, rent, employee expenses, and associated costs for maintaining fixed assets, such as land, buildings, and equipment, oh, and taxes, lots of taxes.
So how do they make money?
They sell the A LOT of milk and eggs.
The company I worked for is a well known high-end national retailer with 350 stores and 60,000 employees. Most people would be surprised to learn their average yearly net profit is 8-9 percent. That’s in a good year… if nothing goes wrong, like a mortgage crisis, market crash or a pandemic.
This is why so many companies, large and small, are closing unprofitable mall stores, cutting inventories, laying of sales and support employees, and still, many end up filling for bankruptcy. Retail at least, is tougher than it looks.
Support your local merchants folks, or our only choice someday may be Amazon or Walmart.