Well, yeah. They are a real estate investment company. That's what real estate investment companies do.

For better or worse, that's the entire food system in a nutshell. Farmers operate on the same model, using the cashflow from the farm to pay creditors and counting on the land investment to be their actual payback. Even McDonalds is well documented to actually be a real estate company. The food is just a means to an end. Much like how the average Joe trying to get rich buying and selling houses will take a day job to pay the mortgage.

They have done a little better this year, to be fair, (although they need to with higher interest rates!) but Sobeys' would be a pretty shitty business if it were only a grocery store. Its owners could do so much better doing something else with that investment. But, in reality, the grocery store doesn't need to be a good business. It just needs to further their actual goals.