Thank you.
You touched on what my next question is. I've spoken to processors. I have a processor in my riding. I recall their telling me that for grocery stores they have to package private label products, which they must sell to the grocers at a lower price. Yet in the stores we see that the canned goods of the name-brand label in this case are not much different in price. You're maybe talking about a few cents less for the no-name brand versus the brand name, yet the processor is forced to sell at a discount to the grocer.
Looking from the outside in, it seems clear that these private labels would actually result in a higher profit margin for the grocers than the brand name.
I'm wondering if you could provide us some insight as to why Loblaws, for instance, may have only chosen to freeze the prices of their in-house brands. As we recall, before Christmas they froze prices of their in-house brands, and the other grocers followed suit.
Could they have chosen to freeze prices on all grocery products for a period of time? Would that have impacted their bottom line?