In October 2022, Kroger, the nation's largest supermarket chain, reached an agreement to purchase Albertsons, the nation's second-largest supermarket chain, in a deal valued at $25 billion. Albertsons itself acquired another major competitor, Safeway, in 2015 for $9.2 billion. The deal, which is subject to review by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), would create a
The FTC just moved to block the Amgen-Horizon merger, which is the first sign of life at the agency in a while. If they're serious about preserving competition and protecting employees and consumers they'll block this one too. Fingers crossed.
This is the power of monopoly. Company X will come to town to great fanfare, take over, drive out competition, then leave wiith all the money and the people will be left holding the bag of wasted tax concessions, pretty words, broken promises and fewer options than before.
Mergers are rarely good for workers or the consumer. . We know that. Why are the regulators even considering allowing one CEO to control so much of our food? Especially Krogers!
Once again, I cannot stress enough the purpose of stealth needed to sell libertarian ideas. When I say stealth, I mean lie. Nancy MacLean brought that strategy penned by James Buchanan in her book Democracy in Chains along with the "no compromise " stance.
And don’t forget how these grocery stores are happy to operate with fewer employees as we pay inflated prices (from corporate greed on top of inflation) and then do the work ourselves through the self checkout. Notice how they aren’t trying very hard to hire? Any data on that? Wonder if anyone can find an executive talking about that strategy?
Curious what these 2 CEOs stand to earn, along with their banks underwriting the merger. I would assume more than $1B in fees and bonuses are at stake, and these monsters will fight hard to keep those sweeteners. Would be a shame if those figures and the metrics they need to hit post merger (which would drive "synergies") were leaked to the public.
Great story, Judd, and an important one, given the relative obscurity of grocery stores workers in economic reports. Grocery workers are taken for granted in ways that Amazon warehouse workers for instance are not.
Libertarians cannot survive in a fresh society where there is no infrastructure or systems constructed to build it.
I would add that the libertarians would destroy a society already in place as it really is a might is right philosophy leaving only the wealthy standing. Thanks for the recommendation
Since Safeway and Albertson merged, the amount of brand selection at my local Safeway has declined and there has been a steady shift to house brands of more erratic quality. And for several years pre pandemic their supply chain was awful- frequent empty cold cases. Kroger house brands are inferior to the Safeway and there are yet more of them, and I hate their huge mega stores. Awful move IMO
I live in Chicago and this merger would be very detrimental to both our workers and consumers. Our largest grocery chain is Jewel, which is owned by Albertsons. Another large chain is Mariano’s which is owned by Kroger. In some areas of the city, Jewel and Mariano’s each have stores in close proximity. Certainly stores will be closed if this merger is approved.
Mariano’s used to be a family run group of stores which had high quality items and other unique offerings. Once the stores were sold to Kroger, most of that uniqueness disappeared and it became a second class alternative. But, we still had Jewel, or as we locals say “The Jewel”, which is solid and dependable. With Kroger at the helm we would surely face store closings and the downgrading of the offerings at former Jewel locations.
None of this is good for Chicago consumers or workers.
As a 'refugee from 30 years of telecom engineering' I can warn you of the 'knock-on' effect of such a merger is on the grocery supply chain.
In 1996, there were nine large, regional phone companies: 7 'Baby Bells' and 2 Independents (GTE and United Telecom aka 'Sprint'). There were also many telco equipment suppliers. All it took to survive as as telco equipment vendor was to have a contract with just one of the nine.
As the merger mania got rolling, the struggle for existence in the telco vendor space was horrific. The first thing mergers cut are 'structural overlap', aka - layoffs of 'excess' people. The second thing that happens is management decides to reduce their number of suppliers. This forces the vendors to also begin merging, causing even more job-loss and downward wage pressure.
In grocery supply environment, this will hit and cause mergers in the 'private label' industry, fresh produce growers, meat suppliers, but also grocery equipment manufacturers and providers. And many of them are located in already stagnant growth areas, so depressed rural and semi-rural communities will become even more so. In fact, many will have two hits - their local grocery store closes and their jobs go away...
In our town, the Albertsons/Safeway/Haggen debacle resulted in the elimination of 2 grocery stores, Albertsons and QFC (owned by Kroger). Prices are so much higher at Haggen that it's actually cheaper to drive to Whole Foods (!) for groceries. They are also higher than the Safeway in the next towns. This merger would reduce competition, and harm the workers. I am adamantly against it.
The FTC just moved to block the Amgen-Horizon merger, which is the first sign of life at the agency in a while. If they're serious about preserving competition and protecting employees and consumers they'll block this one too. Fingers crossed.
This is the power of monopoly. Company X will come to town to great fanfare, take over, drive out competition, then leave wiith all the money and the people will be left holding the bag of wasted tax concessions, pretty words, broken promises and fewer options than before.
They must not allow this merger to go through ....
I have avoided Kroger as much as possible since I read about their ill treatment of employees and unfettered profits during the pandemic.
Does anyone remember "Small is Beautiful" by E.F. Shumacher? Have mergers ever been good for the people—consumers and workers?
Mergers are rarely good for workers or the consumer. . We know that. Why are the regulators even considering allowing one CEO to control so much of our food? Especially Krogers!
Prices go up, wages go down. But sure, Misters CEO, this is a great plan.
Once again, I cannot stress enough the purpose of stealth needed to sell libertarian ideas. When I say stealth, I mean lie. Nancy MacLean brought that strategy penned by James Buchanan in her book Democracy in Chains along with the "no compromise " stance.
And don’t forget how these grocery stores are happy to operate with fewer employees as we pay inflated prices (from corporate greed on top of inflation) and then do the work ourselves through the self checkout. Notice how they aren’t trying very hard to hire? Any data on that? Wonder if anyone can find an executive talking about that strategy?
Curious what these 2 CEOs stand to earn, along with their banks underwriting the merger. I would assume more than $1B in fees and bonuses are at stake, and these monsters will fight hard to keep those sweeteners. Would be a shame if those figures and the metrics they need to hit post merger (which would drive "synergies") were leaked to the public.
Great story, Judd, and an important one, given the relative obscurity of grocery stores workers in economic reports. Grocery workers are taken for granted in ways that Amazon warehouse workers for instance are not.
Someone commented on a thread to me once:
Libertarians cannot survive in a fresh society where there is no infrastructure or systems constructed to build it.
I would add that the libertarians would destroy a society already in place as it really is a might is right philosophy leaving only the wealthy standing. Thanks for the recommendation
Since Safeway and Albertson merged, the amount of brand selection at my local Safeway has declined and there has been a steady shift to house brands of more erratic quality. And for several years pre pandemic their supply chain was awful- frequent empty cold cases. Kroger house brands are inferior to the Safeway and there are yet more of them, and I hate their huge mega stores. Awful move IMO
I live in Chicago and this merger would be very detrimental to both our workers and consumers. Our largest grocery chain is Jewel, which is owned by Albertsons. Another large chain is Mariano’s which is owned by Kroger. In some areas of the city, Jewel and Mariano’s each have stores in close proximity. Certainly stores will be closed if this merger is approved.
Mariano’s used to be a family run group of stores which had high quality items and other unique offerings. Once the stores were sold to Kroger, most of that uniqueness disappeared and it became a second class alternative. But, we still had Jewel, or as we locals say “The Jewel”, which is solid and dependable. With Kroger at the helm we would surely face store closings and the downgrading of the offerings at former Jewel locations.
None of this is good for Chicago consumers or workers.
As a 'refugee from 30 years of telecom engineering' I can warn you of the 'knock-on' effect of such a merger is on the grocery supply chain.
In 1996, there were nine large, regional phone companies: 7 'Baby Bells' and 2 Independents (GTE and United Telecom aka 'Sprint'). There were also many telco equipment suppliers. All it took to survive as as telco equipment vendor was to have a contract with just one of the nine.
As the merger mania got rolling, the struggle for existence in the telco vendor space was horrific. The first thing mergers cut are 'structural overlap', aka - layoffs of 'excess' people. The second thing that happens is management decides to reduce their number of suppliers. This forces the vendors to also begin merging, causing even more job-loss and downward wage pressure.
In grocery supply environment, this will hit and cause mergers in the 'private label' industry, fresh produce growers, meat suppliers, but also grocery equipment manufacturers and providers. And many of them are located in already stagnant growth areas, so depressed rural and semi-rural communities will become even more so. In fact, many will have two hits - their local grocery store closes and their jobs go away...
In our town, the Albertsons/Safeway/Haggen debacle resulted in the elimination of 2 grocery stores, Albertsons and QFC (owned by Kroger). Prices are so much higher at Haggen that it's actually cheaper to drive to Whole Foods (!) for groceries. They are also higher than the Safeway in the next towns. This merger would reduce competition, and harm the workers. I am adamantly against it.