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.”
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.
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?
True… That said the existing already amount of foods made by the same companies doesn’t help either.
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?
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Christ, someone needs to block it.
Kroger owns so many other grocery chains that I kind of assumed Albertson’s was already one.
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.
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.
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.
Yeah if this goes through there’s not going to be any choice left for groceries near me. We already only barely have a choice here this merger would be bleak
Winco, Costco, PCC, Whole Foods (yay amazon), and all the Asian places like H Mart and Ranch Market. Probably only applies to the I-5 corridor from Tacoma to Everett.
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.
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
