I had a conversation with a customer in a store just the other day. She came to me and she said something similar. She asked how we can have such exorbitant profits. We chatted for about 15 minutes, and I explained what I'm explaining here to the committee. She understood, and she said that she hadn't realized that. She said that that's not the way it was being characterized when she read The Globe and Mail or Toronto Star.
I said that all I could tell her was that this was the truth. This is what was going on and, if we didn't raise retail prices as costs went up, the companies that we operate would disappear almost instantly.
That's why this point about low profit margins is so important. One hundred per cent of the total profit of the industry could go into lower food prices, and the price of a grocery basket for that customer who I spoke to would still be $24—