Kroger and Albertsons plan merger to combine 2 largest supermarket chains

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The grocery store chain Kroger plans to buy rival Albertsons in a merger valued at $24.6 billion — a deal that is likely to draw intense antitrust scrutiny from federal regulators as food costs soar.

Kroger plans to buy Albertsons in a deal valued at $24.6 billion, a merger that would merge the two largest grocery-store chains in the U.S., the companies said on Friday.

The deal is likely to draw intense scrutiny from federal regulators and critics as it would form a new supermarket colossus at a time of soaring food costs.Kroger is the largest supermarket operator in the U.S., with 420,000 employees and more than 2,700 stores, including Ralphs, Harris Teeter, Fred Meyer, and King Soopers. Albertsons is the country's second-largest supermarket company, with 290,000 employees and almost 2,300 stores, including Safeway and Vons.

The two overlap in many markets and their tie-up would involve spinning off up to 375 stores into a separate company. In the, Kroger said it would"reinvest approximately half a billion dollars of cost savings from synergies to reduce prices for customers" and invest $1 billion to raise wages and benefits for workers.

For both companies, Walmart is a key competitor, as the retail giant is a top seller of groceries in the U.S., along with Amazon and smaller stores. Albertsons

 

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DrDinD 🙏

Merger. Less options for savings to the consumer. But its all part of the Globalization plan. The Merger and Centralization of Powers for one World Wide purpose, a New World Order.

This merger should not be allowed. In my area, Kroger would basically have a monopoly on grocery stores.

This is ridiculous. It will drive up prices.

I deliberately don’t shop at Fred Meyer. Now they’re going to screw up Albertsons?

NOOOOOOOOOOO I HATE YOU KROGER

This is your npr… on Koch.

CBS called out corporations that price gouge under the excuse of inflation. One of the corporations was Kroger, and Mitch McConnell's wife sits on the board.

Wonder how this merger will affect union contracts, pensions, etc

Will this bring the price of wings down!! Because $1 per wing needs to be a federal crime atp.

This is bad

There will be no benefit to consumers from this.

Executives will make money, and the workers will be broke

Why the government approves these mergers is beyond me. We are gonna end up with one massive corp and all get screwed.

Terrible news. The last thing shopper's need is another Kroger store.

spicytown locals know that FriendlyKayTee stores will ALWAYS be a choice they can make. kroger will NEVER buy us. We will NEVER rebrand, except for those stores in CA where we had to change our name to vons in the 1940s due to a settlement over copyright. Thanks for watching!

POTUS

Instead of becoming one, it should be broken up into about six.

No carts in the store, no workers to help you in the store, 1 cash register out of 15 is open, sales? Sign-up for a card, download an app, install code scanner on phone, now you can get a discount, stores still half empty on items...Kroger is straight trash...Never shopping there

So no more shopping at jewel for me since Kroger fucks everything up

Aside from the hazard pay...Has anybody shopped at a Kroger lately? Zero registers open, all self-checkout, THEN over 1/2 of the self-checkout registers are closed because they're broken. Breathe wrong and the self-checkout locks and says to wait for an associate.

Kroger is not only a garbage corporation, but the stores themselves are just complete trash. They were in a sprint with Wal-Mart to see who could be the worst grocery store possible, and Kroger took the lead and is ahead by a mile now.

Oh great Kroger got another grocery store chain to destroy.

I thought Albertsons was bought by Tom Thumb a few years ago

This isn’t a “complimentary” merger. Stores in 16 chains in 40+ metros (inc LA & Chicago) & 20 states would likely close. Many remaining stores would “compete” only with other Kroger-owned stores. Prices, selection, quality, service, & pay/treatment of workers would all suffer.

winco is winning

We have one of each in our town of 20k. If they merge, where’s the price competition?

Essentially a complete monopoly in the Denver metro and state of Colorado. Decentralize our food systems to make them work for the people instead merging for the benefit of multinational conglomerates looking for the biggest profits.

Oligopolies = less competition and higher prices.

Wow another Monopoly just like phone companies, electric companies & gas

I do not approve

This is NOT going to work out. There's too many areas where both a Kroger owned grocery store and an Albertsons owned grocery store are in walking distance. This will cause mass layoffs and not be good for the consumer.

They already have Harris Teeter

24.6$ billion cash. They've been price gouging us so hard during that after paying execs outrageous sums + bonuses worth more than most folks make in a year, they still have 24.6 B$ cash. Kroger closed stores so they wouldn't have to give essential workers a couple bucks raise.

We need some monopoly busting to come back

Oh i’ sure we’ll hear the argument that by the company being larger there will be ‘economies of scale’, and the reduction in costs will mean price savings…which will then be directly-passed-on to customers”…., 🙄…more trickle-down lies.

If you wonder why prices are so high, this is the reason. Merger after merger elimination of competition. There is the additional problem of placing them in the too big to fail encouraging shoddy management leading to failure. This is where government really fails us.

CEO of Albertsons said they will spin off 400 stores (close) to avoid antitrust. They will put people out of work

I stopped shopping at the big name stores years ago. I use Aldi and Walmart SuperCenters. Yes, Walmart is a big name but their selection, and pricing are good. The Kroger/Albertsons deal will definitely cause priceing to increase.

Conglomeration is the number one driver of higher costs. Inflation is global. Price gouging and price fixing are local/national.

Ya know Kroger you could take 1,2 or even 3 billion of that and pay your employees better and give them better benefits.

Grocery stores making record profits as inflation rises.

ampersine RIP Albertsons

Ugh. I have jinxed myself. I was just extolling the local Albertsons quality and price of meats. (My mom still likes meat) while contrasting it to Kroger, whose beef suppliers have the monopoly on cattle that have died of extreme old age.

Also…I thought we were in a recession. How do they have nearly 25 bil cash to spend right now while claiming they have to raise prices?! BullshitRecession CorporateGreed

Hope this doesn’t go thru. Albertsons owns Safeway which means that shitty Kroger will dom AZ, raising prices while lowering quality. kroger is the only chain I ALWAYS have issues with being overcharged or not honoring sale items or flat out no stock on sale items No2Kroger

In Las Vegas our two most commonly competing grocery stores are Albertsons and Smith’s (by Kroger). Together, they’re gonna have a near-monopoly of a metro area of 2 million people. Please stop this merger.

Wait. Albertsons is still around? 👀

So as record inflation is happening, they’ve got the money to buy another company… hmm wonder where that extra cash they’ve been pocketing might’ve come from

I remember shopping at Albertsons as a child.. leave it alone Kroger.

Chinese are the lowest in the world. The Brain-Control only be used by bourgeoisie. After Mao Zedong, capitalism combined with Chinese to form the ultimate evil of capitalism - Brain-Control system, It's that system is using in every country now in fact.

No!!!!!!!

And the employees will get stuck with the same shitty union deal as well. I'm sure.

Grocery business is my business, and it’s F&ked from the top on down.

I'm against this. Been watching grocery chain consolidation for the last few decades. Safeway (Albertsons) prices are extremely high. I go to Walmart, Ranch99, for groceries as much as I can. Starting to look at GroceryOutlet & Mexican grocers.

Don’t we have a free market society ?

So that’s where the money is going. It sure wasn’t being used to stock the shelves.

That's bad.

TronCarterNLU BigRandyNLU FYI

On a completely unrelated topic, will Jewel still have the annual Monopoly game?

And as usual, they won't stop it, because they don't care that it will make groceries more expensive.

The story doesn't say what will happen to Tom Thumb. Albertson's is the parent company there.

Invest in Food Co-ops today!

So they jack up the grocery prices because their costs are rising, and then go and BUY A WHOLE GROCERY CHAIN?

Albertsons also bought Safeway but didn't change the name.

Kroger is already a behemoth.

I can hear Senator Shaky Fist Warren shrieking from here…..

Ugh. Kroger is already too big for itself.

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