37
votes
US Federal Trade Commission and eight states sue to block supermarket merger between Kroger and Albertsons
Link information
This data is scraped automatically and may be incorrect.
- Title
- FTC, states challenge Kroger's $25 billion grocery merger with Albertsons
- Published
- Feb 26 2024
- Word count
- 778 words
I really hope it's blocked. In my area if you don't count the expensive/niche grocery stores like Whole Foods (There are some other equivalents to Whole foods), it is just safeway (albertson's) and QFC (Kroger). I really don't want to see having no alternatives, especially as they don't all stock the same thing so it will mean less choice in products to buy too.
Ok, after readign that article I'm even more furious about this merger than before (and I'm already hoping it gets blocked because it will make it so they have a monopoly in my area). Why? Because of this quote from the albertson's spokesperson (and also kroger's claims that this some how is better for consumers but the albertons's one shows specifically they're very disgenious arguement): “If the Federal Trade Commission is successful in blocking this merger, it would be hurting customers and helping strengthen larger, multi-channel retailers such as Amazon, Walmart and Costco — the very companies the FTC claims to be reining in — by allowing them to continue increasing their growing dominance of the grocery industry.”
Except they fucking know that Amazon, Walmart, and Costco are not their competitors. I'm certainly not going to shop solely at those companies in lew (sp?) of going to the grocery store (nor would I for Whole Foods, too damned expensive). Though that comment pisses me off enough that if it goes through I might go through the inconvience just to tell them to fuck off. They want a monopoly and they're using bad arguments to say the opposite.
“In lieu”
Like "lieutenant"--the tenant in lieu of the commander.
Well that would be insane market consolidation. They're basically the only national companies in the traditional grocery store market. Sure, there's Whole Foods and Trader Joe's/Aldi, but they're really filling niches. Makes me really glad that my area has local/sub-regional chains so the only K/A brand in the area is like a worse and less prominent Aldi. Plus we have Fresh Thyme, the best grocery store around. Honestly, I have no idea why our local stores haven't been acquired. There's probably a (boring) story there.