Having watched accusations of price gouging escalate over the past few weeks, Coles chief executive Leah Weckert arrived at her December half results announcement with her line of defence fully prepared: profit is no bad thing.

“Profits are an essential thing for any business,” Weckert began, before explaining that it allows Coles to employ 120,000 people, support 8000 suppliers and pay “a very large tax bill”. Then there are shareholders, including hundreds of thousands of mums and dads, and millions of super fund members.