Coles boss Leah Weckert said on Tuesday that in the 2024 financial year, the company had invested a record amount into lowering prices.

But for supermarkets, which have been hauled over the coals this year by politicians of all stripes looking to strut their bona fides on fighting the cost of living, their behaviour is under intense scrutiny.

One response from Coles has been to take some of the friction out of redeeming loyalty points for checkout discounts.

Two million shoppers did this for the first time at Coles in 2024 – which itself is a measure of the tightness of household budgets.

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Another interesting element to shopper behaviour is softer sales of alcohol, which was evident in Coles’ results and in a report from Endeavour Group (which owns Dan Murphy’s) that sales were soft in the first seven weeks of the new financial year.

But the Greens were fast out of the gate on Tuesday in the race to pummel Coles in the wake of its profit.

Long on hyperbole and short on evidence, Greens senator Nick McKim reckons: “Coles’ $1.1 billion profit is a sick joke for the millions of Australians struggling to afford food and groceries.”

“Coles is cashing in on a crisis, showing complete contempt for the people who are struggling the most,” he said.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton who has previously called for forced divestiture of supermarket stores looks to have more recently turned his attention to big-box retailers such as Bunnings, which will be grilled at a parliamentary hearing later in the year.

But make no mistake in reporting a healthy profit at Coles, Weckert has led with her chin – politically speaking. She will be exposed to calls that the supermarket group is over-earning, regardless of whether that claim is justified.

It’s a gutsy move.

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