Colorado Sues to Stop $25 Billion Kroger-Albertsons Merger

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: US News and World Report/Reuters

Feb. 14, 2024, at 2:51 p.m.


(Reuters) - Colorado’s attorney general filed a lawsuit on Wednesday seeking to block Kroger's proposed $25 billion acquisition of rival supermarket chain Albertsons, saying consumers would be hurt, as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and other states continue to scrutinize the deal.

Attorney General Phil Weiser in a statement said the proposed transaction, first announced in 2022, “would lead to stores closing, higher prices, fewer jobs, worse customer service, and less resilient supply chains.” Kroger and Albertsons are two of Colorado's largest grocery chains, Weiser’s office said. Kroger runs 148 King Soopers and City Market stores, and Albertsons operates 105 Safeway and Albertsons stores in the state.

The companies defended the proposed deal as pro-competitive, saying in a statement they were “disappointed in Attorney General Weiser’s premature decision to file a lawsuit while the merger is still under regulatory review” by the FTC. The companies said they would "vigorously defend this in court" and said they are "in active dialogue" with the FTC and unnamed state attorneys general.

Colorado's lawsuit, filed in state court in Denver, is the second filed by a state attorney general challenging the merger.

Read more: https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2024-02-14/colorado-sues-to-stop-25-billion-kroger-albertsons-merger

[SouthernDem4ever]

1. Grocery stores are now a ripoff

They have little competition as it is. The deal shouldn't go through. The only thing that will be pro-competitive is the increase in salaries for the CEO's and Board Members.

[iluvtennis]

2. Fingers crossed Colorado is able to stop this merger - we need competition, not monopolies. n/t

[hlthe2b]

5. Ditto... we have little enough choice to begin with... Once we had Steele's, Albertsons, Safeway,

King Soopers, and other local smaller chains, multiple local natural food stores in addition to Whole Foods, Sprouts, Natural Grocers, and of course the Walmart, Targets.

The consolidation has done nothing but hurt consumers. Any more and all we'll have is abandoned storefronts and even higher prices.

[cstanleytech]

3. Are they also going to file to breakup Walmart? Walmart has wielded their size like a sledgehammer for

years to drive out competition by undercutting them on prices.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. Maybe if Walmart tried to merge with Target!

[cstanleytech]

7. Point is if they want competition they need to be fair and that includes companies like Walmart.

It certainly would not be easy but if they can breakup AT&T then they can break up Walmart as well say by dividing the country into 3 to 5 regions and requiring that X% of Walmarts in each region be spun off into their own company.
And the stores should be picked via random lottery drawing so as to prevent Walmart from cherrypicking.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. Well I think this particular suit is to thrwart a "merger" that hasn't happened yet

not demand the breakup of either one of those supermarket entities (which themselves are already conglomerates).

So in a way, the analogies are apples and oranges.

[cstanleytech]

9. In the end the suit is about needing competition and Walmart has effectively destroyed most of it.

[BumRushDaShow]

10. Agree

although Wally World ain't the only ones. We are rapidly seeing the retail pharmacy market consolidating as well.

At least around here in Philly, Walmart isn't really a "thing" because there are so few (I think maybe 2 or possibly 3 in a city of 1.6 million) because we already had a strong set of retailers in the same space.

[Raine]

6. Good, I sure hope they're able to stop

this whole thing. Already raising prices so the public is forced to contribute to their greedy acquisition.