The Arizona Attorney General’s Office will investigate the proposed merger between supermarket giants Kroger Co. and Albertsons Cos., checking for anti-trust violations that could raise grocery prices and looking for signs that store closures or employment changes might harm local communities.
"In addition to skyrocketing prices, the proposed merger raises questions about the potential for store closures that could force consumers to travel farther for groceries — possibly creating food deserts that disproportionately affect minority communities,” Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a prepared statement.
Kroger and Albertsons have said they might need to spin off certain stores to satisfy regulators’ concerns about having too high of a market share in certain areas.But even in large cities, grocery prices have risen, and reduced competition could hasten that trend. Metro Phoenix had the nation’s second-highest overall urban inflation rate in 2022 at 9.5%, second only to 9.9% for Miami/Fort Lauderdale, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
A spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office declined to comment on those sessions or answer various questions about the scope of the investigation, food deserts, threatened communities and additional issues, including whether other state attorneys general would collaborate. It's also unclear what effect Arizona could have on a merger that's national in scope and subject to a federal anti-trust review.
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