The National Post reports in its Saturday, Sept. 23, edition that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's gathering of leading grocers was an act of egregious political flim-flam. The Post's Conrad Black writes that the big grocers have thin margins. Last year the combined profits of the three largest grocery retailers (Loblaw, Empire's Sobeys and Metro) were $3.6-billion, but that was against $100-billion in sales. Mr. Black says that is not a high return. He notes that the grocers are especially vulnerable to outright theft by employees and customers, which he pegs at more than 1 per cent of overall sales. He notes that inflation is a bugaboo too. Mr. Black says the profit achieved by these companies is not keeping pace with the rising costs of goods and services. Mr. Black calls it a seriously startling act of evasion for the PM, who he says is chiefly responsible for this "unsustainable" level of inflation, to blame it on food retailers whose rate of profit is less than the inflationary rise in their costs for which the federal government's "profligate extravagance and insane energy policies driven by the Green Terror, are almost entirely responsible." He say voters will know who to blame at election time.