“Most grocery chains could make larger returns if they sold their chains and put the money into a saving account”
I don’t think that’s the way it is.
My understanding is that the 1-3% is based on sales NOT on assets/investments.
It is, but the profit from the sale of the assets would yield better returns from a savings account. Investment to an economist is not the exchange of assets, like a stock sale. That’s simply trading paper assets. Instead, investment is meant to be the purchase of capital goods to expand production.