10 mo. ago • 99%

Washington state sues to block proposed merger of Kroger and Albertsons grocery chains

apnews.com Washington state sues to block proposed merger of Kroger and Albertsons grocery chains

Washington state has sued to block the proposed merger of two of the nation's largest grocery chains.

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson on Monday sued to block the proposed merger of Kroger and Albertsons, two of the nation’s largest grocery chains.

In the suit filed in King County Superior Court, Ferguson argued that the $25-billion deal would harm consumers and raise prices, The Seattle Times reported. Kroger and Albertsons have more than 300 locations in the state and account for more than half of its grocery sales, according to the suit.

“This merger is bad for Washington shoppers and workers,” Ferguson said in a news release Monday. “Shoppers will have fewer choices and less competition, and, without a competitive marketplace, they will pay higher prices at the grocery store.”

61 comments

Trust Bust that shit.

101
Kroger owns so many other grocery chains that I kind of assumed Albertson's was already one.

91
- Albertsons is the same they have like 14-15 brands they bought out. So these two merging would be a huge market share of grocery stores.
  
  20
- Kroger typically just operates one chain per region, which was a local chain they bought out for expansion. They don’t have multiple stores in an area that compete with each other or have different names.
  
  16
  
  Seattle area we have qfc, Metro market, and Fred Meyer who are all Kroger brands. To be honest I thought Safeway was part of Kroger as well but just learned they are owned by Albertsons.
  
  31
  
  There are several QFCs and Fred Meyers near each other in Washington that are also near a Safeway or Albertson. This would absolutely result in the closure of a lot of stores.
  
  13
  
  I used to live in Denver and it was King Soopers there. Where I live now there aren't any Kroger stores but there is an Albertsons on every other block and I felt like IMO King Soopers was better so I wasn't concerned about it. But WA state is absolutely right when the 2 are actually in competition with each other, it's a bad move to allow it. I felt that way when Albertsons and Safeway merged because they were basically the only stores in town. They ended up being required to sell the Safeway stores here, they weren't allowed to acquire them.
  
  12
- Fry’s, in AZ, which surprised me.
  
  8
  
  All krogers stores are set up basically the same. When I moved from Phoenix and frys to Los Angeles and Ralph's, the stores I used were exactly the same.
  
  2
There is a very serious problem with 1 grocery chain having a monopoly and Kroger pretty much does in some areas.

65
Think about what this would look like for you locally, call your representatives and let them know you care and oppose this issue.

----- Kroger brands: -----

Baker’s

City Market

Dillons

Food 4 Less

Foods Co

Fred Meyer

Fry’s

Gerbes

Jay C Food Store

King Soopers

Kroger

Mariano’s

Metro Market

Pay-Less Super Markets

Pick’n Save

QFC

Ralphs

Ruler

Smith’s Food and Drug

----- Albertsons brands: ------

Acme Markets: 162 locations (CT, DE, MD, NJ, NY and PA)

Albertsons: 381 locations (AZ, AR, CA, CO, ID, LA, MT, NV, NM, ND, OR, TX, UT, WA and WY)

Albertsons Market: 23 locations (NM)

Amigos: 4 locations (TX)

Andronico's: 7 locations (CA)

Balducci's: 8 locations (CT, MD, NY, VA)

Carrs: 11 locations (AK)

Haggen: 15 locations (WA)

Jewel-Osco: 188 locations (IL, IA, and IN)

Kings Food Markets: 19 locations (CT, NJ, NY)

Lucky: 4 locations (UT)

Market Street: 19 locations (NM and TX)

Pak 'n Save: 2 locations (CA)

Pavilions: 27 locations (Southern California)

Randalls: 28 locations (Greater Houston and Greater Austin, TX)

Safeway: 914 locations (AK, AZ, CA, CO, DC, DE, HI, ID, MD, MT, NE, NV, NM, OR, SD, VA, WA, WY)

Shaw's: 127 locations (MA, ME, NH, RI and VT)

Star Market: 21 locations (MA)

Tom Thumb: 65 locations (Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, TX)

United Supermarkets: 97 locations (Texas Panhandle) plus 39 United Express locations (NM and TX)

Vons: 194 locations (Southern California and Southern Nevada)
48
- Yup. We live in Washington, and our town has a QFC, a Fred Meyer, and a Safeway. If this deal goes through, Kroger will own all three. Not only will prices probably go up but they will likely shut down the Safeway (where we prefer to shop) because it is just across the street from Fred Meyer. We might end up doing our regular shopping at Grocery Outlet, which is the only other option in town.
  
  18
  
  At least you still have whole foods and Amazon fresh as independent stores. Oh wait.
  
  2
- I wonder if Albertson's owned Jewel-Osco back in the 80s. We had one in my town and it was pretty good as both a supermarket and a drugstore. I think Jewel was the supermarket and Osco was the drugstore.
  
  9
  
  They've only owned Jewel-Osco since 1999; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewel-Osco
  
  4
  
  No they didn't
  
  2
- How about a list of independent chains? Off the top of my head, I can think of Stater Bros, Publix, and HEB, so independents seem to be regional. Maybe Trader Joe’s.
  
  1
Kroger has already ruined enough Washington retailers. They need to stay away from Safeway & Albertsons.

45
- It's probably an issue all over, and I hope it gets blocked, for the sake of consumers. Kroger acquired a company called Roundy's which has a chain called "Pick N Save" in Wisconsin back in 2015. I remember shopping there after and seeing additional tags with products' prices announcing the "Your New Low", but prices were higher than pre acquisition. I stopped shopping there after that and noticing a decrease in product/brand diversity.
  
  20
  
  I actually saw this exact same thing happen to of all things, an older Kroger store. They closed the store and revamped the building as a new Harris Teeter. Same location and customers, but the prices were higher than previously, and the other competition nearby. The selection was also far worse. Many of the old employees went to other stores, so
  I'm guessing the wages took a similar dive.
  
  8
- Wasnt Safeway bought by Albertsons?
  
  12
  
  Yes.
  
  7
- I miss old Fred Meyers, working there as they started to transition away from what made it a good store makes me not want to shop there anymore. Now it's like a grocery store with a home and apparel department. Before it was a full department store. But you could definitely feel the weight of management shifting to grocery when I was there between 2012 and 2016.
  
  6
  
  Greetings fellow former Fred Meyer associate! It was my first job after High School, and I was there during the transition as well. Used to love Fred Meyer when I was a kid. It had good quality products, service was always good, and it just holds a nostalgic place in my heart. Post Kroger it has just turned into a shell of itself. Having even more options reduced by Kroger taking over the other two main grocery chains would be a nightmare.
  
  2
I literally shop at five different grocery stores in an attempt to avoid getting overly gouged. Imagine if I did not even have that option because they were all owned by the same company.

44
- The words "anti trust" mean nothing in 2024. There are literally federal laws against businesses merging to form an unfair advantage and buying up all of their competitors like this. But anti trust laws are treated like those silly old timey laws like you cannot chain your alligator to a fire hydrant or you can't carry an ice cream cone in your back pocket. Yeah, technically they're on the books, but when's the last time they were truly enforced?
  
  9
- True... That said the existing already amount of foods made by the same companies doesn't help either.
  
  1
20
- An Ourobezos.
  
  9
- Mergers and monopolies are a feature
  
  1
Christ, someone needs to block it.

15
I've never been in a Kroger's but I hear a lot about them, and I know first hand how shit Albertson's is.

If those are the only two choices people in Washington have, that already sucks.

12
- In Portland Oregon, I’ve got these two choices, then a local chain that’s much smaller and much more expensive… and a coop that’s also quite expensive.
  
  So for semi-reasonably priced food, it’s either Kroger or Albertsons.
  
  7
  
  WinCo?
  
  8
  
  Oh poppy cock. Oregon has some pretty diverse grocery options most of them cheaper than Kroger and Albertsons.
  
  For example, corvallis, has a winco, Walmart market, grocery outlet, and traders Joe's, all of which I can easily spend less at than Safeway or Fred Meyer, which is the big Kroger brand in Oregon.
  
  Then there's also, university market and natural grocers, 15 minutes down 22 there's an iga, locally owned chains designed to be close to certain housing, smaller, a little more expensive.
  
  Then there's the Asian (like HK) and Indian (like Desi) markets. There used to be a Mexican grocery they're but it shut down. I'm certain you'll have one in Portland though. These places have amazing specialty ingredients as well as some great deals on standard stuff.
  
  Finally there's a market of choice which is traditionally expensive, but occasionally has some seriously good deals.
  
  3
- Washington has a few grocery store franchises, but only a few standard grocers with Kroger & Albertsons dominating the market.
  
  Standard Grocers:
  
  QFC (Kroger)
  
  Safeway & Albertsons (Albersons)
  
  Red Apple
  
  Discount:
  
  Saars
  
  Grocery Outlet
  
  Bulk:
  
  Winco
  
  Costco
  
  Super Centers:
  
  Walmart
  
  Target
  
  Fred Meyer (Kroger)
  
  Specialty:
  
  Whole Foods
  
  PCC
  
  Trader Joe's
  
  Metropolitan Markert
  
  Asian:
  
  H-Mart
  
  Uwajimaya
  
  Outlet:
  
  Cash-n-Carry
  
  5
- You want to know how bad Kroger is? I'd much rather go to an Albertsons. In fact, I have a Kroger owned store less than a mile from where I live, but if I need certain things, or just want a more pleasant shopping experience, I'll go the 10 minutes to the Albertsons or Hmart.
  
  4
- We have a few others, at least near major population centers, that range from cheap to pricey. I don't see Costco going away anytime soon for example.
  
  3
Weird. I thought kroger had bought out albertson's years ago. At least 15 years or so ago, all the albertson's stores (like 10 that I knew of) became krogers in my area.

8
- The biggest move with Albertson's in the last while (maybe a little less than 10 years ago) was buying Safeway. Maybe you're thinking of that, and/or maybe they closed some stores and Kroger came in instead? Here in Denver they're looking at selling some stores to the company that owns Piggly Wiggly to make regulators happy - could be that something like that was done.
  
  12
  
  As part of the Albertsons-Safeway merger a number of locations were required to be sold, and often they were sold to another grocery chain.
  
  10
  
  I'm sure they either sold those specific stores to Kroger, or closed and Kroger bought the building like you said, but I just haven't seen an Albertson's in decades here. I really thought they had went under.
  
  4
Holy fuck, I didn't realize they also owned QFC and Fred Meyer. If they went through, what would be left? Amazon, Costco, and met market?

3
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-14

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