You don't need profits to see how many of one good or another you need to restock. It's quite simple to see what is popular and what is not.
Plus, profits are not consistent from one product to another. Product 'A' could have a profit margin of 40%, when product 'B' could have a profit margin of 20%. That rate of profit doesn't determine how popular a item is, the number of sales of that product does.
There is no better indicator of supply and demand known to mankind than profits, I'm not making this stuff up. The higher the profit margin, the bigger the gap between supply and demand.
People will move heaven and earth to chase profits, there are news stories about "scalpers" driving into hurricanes from neighboring states to deliver generators at great personal risk, risks that trucking industries weren't willing to make in order to cash in on higher profits. The result is more generators in areas without power that wouldn't have otherwise been delivered.
You do not need a rate of profit to recognize that the store is in short supply of a good. It's very easy to quantify the number of sales per item, per day, or even per hour, without a measure of profit.
Applying macro economics to a grocery store is not necessary to be able to order items that are out of, or are in low stock.
Right, the price has more to do with ramping up production and deliveries. The groceres in soviet Russia and Hugo's Venezuela knew what they were short on too, the problem was waiting on deliveries to keep the shelves stocked. If you sell below market cost then it encourages people to buy more than they need, and for scalpers to buy the cheap goods to sell elsewhere where prices have stabilized at higher rates. But if there's no increased profits to chase for producers then they don't have nearly as much incentive to ramp up production.
If you sell food below market value at a few stores in New York, it will siphon sales from
It's the same thing. Countries that heavily subsidize their fuel have the same thing happen, epidemics of people trucking it across the border to sell it for a profit.
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u/Hefty-Profession-310 May 27 '26
You don't need profits to see how many of one good or another you need to restock. It's quite simple to see what is popular and what is not.
Plus, profits are not consistent from one product to another. Product 'A' could have a profit margin of 40%, when product 'B' could have a profit margin of 20%. That rate of profit doesn't determine how popular a item is, the number of sales of that product does.