Albertsons’ management is probably wrong about protein inflation

In a recent investor call, Albertsons predicted that COVID-19 related shocks would generate manageable inflation in the upcoming months. “We expect the inflation to be higher as we go through the year, but we expect it still to be in the 3% to 5% range.” CEO Vivek Sankaran said. “Which, in our opinion, is extremely manageable.”

Like most COVID-19 related inflation, the shocks aren’t uniform across categories. For the overall US economy, it is estimated that used-vehicle prices have accounted for about one-third of the…