Where are you getting that WOW makes stuff all profit? They made $1820m this year in profit, serving 25.1m customers per week. That's $1.39 profit on average per customer visit - so they are definitely profitable.
As to why the market cap is $40b, for me it's simple. From that $1.8b profit, they distribute about $1.3b to WOW shareholders. That equates to about $1 per share in dividends, which is a 3% yield on a share price of $33. That 3% includes credits that you can use to offset your tax, so including the credits that 3% yield is more like ~4.3%.
So you can park your money at the bank for 4%-5% interest, or you can buy WOW shares and get dividends equal to about 4.3% interest. It's a no brainer to go with WOW shares because sales and profit should grow over time due to population growth (we were at 21m pop in 2004, today we're 27m, will be at least 30m by 2030), general inflation (money supply expands in most years), and rising living standards leading to people buying more goods. Meanwhile bank interest rates will at best average ~4-5%, but more likely be much lower. So for me a $30 share price, or around $40b market cap, is very easily justifiable based on the dividend yield alone.
Of course this all changes if WOW loses customers, but it's hard to see this happening long term because there's really nowhere else to go if you want a standard grocery range at the lowest prices. Aldi is cheaper, but its range is limited so it's not for everyone. Costco requires membership fees, is sparse and is more suited to bulk buying. IGA isn't even price competitive. Despite the uproar, Colesworth are generally still the cheapest place to shop if you want to do a normal grocery shop, with everything you need in one place.
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