Assume the position
The proposed merger of the Kroger and Albertson grocery store empires has stunk to high heaven from the start, but the smell got stronger today with the news that the combined outfit would sell off something like 580 stores, so that the feds will stop pointing out that they're violating antitrust laws.
Of those stores, 186 of them are in Oregon and Washington, and if you look at the list, you see that they include every Safeway, Albertson's, and QFC store in Portland.
Who's going to buy all those stores? Amazon? WalMart? I doubt they'd be interested in most of them. So then what? Some fly-by-nighters take them over and run them into the ground? All that will be left are the Fred Meyer stores, or whatever brand the Almighty Kroger decides to change Meyer to.
It's time for the feds to blow the whistle on this foulness. Where is Ron Wyden? Probably checking his wife's stock portfolio before saying anything. But it doesn't take a Ph.D. in economics to see that the everyday shopper, already being gouged, is going to be crushed by this combination.
I haven't set foot in a Kroger-owned store in nearly three years, and I sure don't want to go back now. But apparently I might not have a choice.
I believe that competition in the retail market place is a benefit to the consumer. I don’t see any consumer benefit in this merger.
ReplyDeleteWhich is why the FTC and 9 state Attorneys General sued to block it.
DeleteFYI these stores would not be closed - at least not immediately. They would be divested to New Hampshire-based C&S Wholesale Grocers for $1.9 billion. They'll still be stores, unless they just go out of business.
This is such an obvious move to shut down Fred Meyer’s competitors. Makes me sick to my stomach.
ReplyDeleteThe original Fred Meyer quite successfully put most of the small family owned dry goods, butchers and green grocers out of business 100 years ago.
ReplyDeleteThey are being bought by C & S wholesale grocery chain from back east. I have family working for QFC and they are as uninformed as we are, except they know a new boss (same as the old boss) has been announced. Good thing is they have a union (for now).
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cswg.com/
Those stores will probably be gone in a couple of years.
DeletePiggly Wiggly!
ReplyDeleteC & S owns Piggly Wiggly which arguably started the consolidation process in 1916 (not Freddy).
ReplyDeleteC&S appear better funded and better equipped to handle this sort of expansion than the poor Zuppan's folks. I wonder, given both companies' historic footprint, whether their familiarity with one another is good or bad for them or us.
ReplyDeleteWoe unto the new folks once they get a load of the locations they're taking over, particularly in Portland. 39th and Powell? 122nd and Powell? 68th and Sandy? 10th and Jefferson! WOOF.
68th and Sandy isn't so bad. 11th and Broadway? Now, that's bad. The Albertson's on Cully is pretty wild and woolly, too.
DeleteZuppan's ran out of money at one point; I wouldn't think they or New Seasons are up for a big expansion.
Winco is your friend
ReplyDeleteMy friend six miles away.
DeleteMuch better quality over the years and usually cheaper. Go early in the morning or you'll be behind 3-4 carts as loaded as possible.
DeleteOverheard a checker at QFC last night. "I'm not going outside those "Union People" are out there.
DeleteQFC and Safeway are much more expensive than Fred Myer! Whatever benefits are supposed to result from competition are not working currently. QFC and Fred Myer are both owned by Kroger, but an identical can of Progresso soup is $2 more at QFC with no perceivable improvement in the shopping experience. Even Kroger brand items are more expensive at QFC.
ReplyDelete