The two biggest grocery store chains in the country, and Alaska, are moving forward with their multi-billion-dollar merger, and they’ve announced a plan to sell more than a dozen stores in Alaska to a third company.
That proposal by Fred Meyer parent company Kroger and Carrs Safeway owner Albertsons, to sell 14 Safeway stores in Alaska to C&S Wholesale Grocers, is designed to satisfy the Federal Trade Commission. The worry is that if a single company controls grocery sales in a particular community, the lack of competition would lead to higher prices for consumers and reduced bargaining power for union workers.
Jarrad Harford, a professor of finance at the University of Washington Foster School of Business, has been following the proposed merger since it was first announced nearly a year ago. And Harford says there’ve been a lot of questions since then about the significant overlap the companies have in places like Alaska.: You know, it’s interesting even though these mergers are national in scope, the arguments with the FTC are very local.