Economy

A well run chain nets less than 1.5%. They loss leader (sell below cost) milk, bananas and other key items. WalMart leverages their position and can loss leader deeper than competitors because each visit to their store helps them sell non-grocery items. It was WalMart who forced food processors (Nestle, ConAgra, etc) to change the format of expiration dates so that customers could easily read them. They were semi coded before. The guess is that WalMart did this to put pressure on competitors who have less ability to rotate stock, eg are more likely to shelve product which is hitting the dates. All the grocery chains lose money on fruit and veg and that is why you see few or none of those in food "desert" areas.

It is an interesting study but the worst effects of inflation have come from increases in big ticket non-discretionaries like rents, property taxes, home/car/health insurance and medicine.