Comment by pjerem

I don’t have profits numbers but, as a customer, what I can tell you is that the large majority of those supermarkets are doing fine. They are renovated like brand new every couple years, they pop everywhere, they have money to innovate (E.Leclerc for example now have automated drive-throughs where your groceries arrive to you on a conveyor belt, serving dozens of clients in parallel directly to their car).

We also have a struggling supermarket chain (Auchan) and I assure you you can tell just by entering the supermarket that there isn’t a money issue.

Thin margin ? Sure, probably. But if there is enough money to build and develop brand new factorio-like contraptions, I’m sure they can handle fridge controllers well.

And yup, I worked for one of those three actors in their tech department and they are as much as tech-savvy than the other startup. And they have the same tech culture as your favorite startup : no real money issue and not a lot of care given as long as it is shipped.