[legitster]

The linked study didn't really make that claim. All it really showed was that only a small portion of inflation was returned in the form of wages. It didn't really attempt to figure out the reasons for the profits.

I don't know why people get so hung up on this though: If you have less stuff to sell, and fewer employees to sell it, your profit margins are going to be higher! That doesn't mean though that you are maximizing your revenue potential. Which is probably why despite all of these reports of "record profits" you are not seeing exploding stock evaluations.

Also, it doesn't hurt that inflation is always going to be favorable to retailers. You buy inventory at the pre-inflation price and sell it at the post-inflation price. Even if you just price to keep up with inflation, you are going to report "record profits" every quarter just by nature of inflation.