I swear, if they don’t block this merger…
The FTC needs to win here.
I agree and am also not hopeful given how the courts have been acting.
I’m in Albuquerque. 3/4 of all supermarkets are either Albertson’s or Smith’s (Kroger). It will be a massive hit to local grocery competition. Prices will absolutely go up.
All our local grocery stores would get more traffic though wouldn’t they?
You guys still have local grocery stores?
Yeah, we still have local fastfood too. Lugana burger is fucking dope
Maybe. It would be nice.
But with one national company having that much market share, they could easily cut prices below cost for 6 months, forcing the locals to close.If Keller’s and La Montañita didn’t shut down during COVID I don’t think competitors are going to be able to shut them down, but that’s just my hot take.
Cool. We don’t have enough food deserts yet.
Good think that 7-11 is full of junk food!
Where I am in California there are six Safeways (owned by Albertsons who is merging Kroger) in a two mile square. At least here, we aren’t short of grocery stores, and these aren’t being shuttered anyway, they’re being sold to C&S Wholesale Grocers . The issue is this massive monopoly, not really being mitigated by the anti trust regulators making them give up a tiny percentage of their kingdom in order to vastly increase their strangle hold on US grocery stores and ability to artificially inflate food prices.
Bay area: https://abc7news.com/food-desert-bay-area-deserts-pantry-near-me-alameda-bank/11254529/
Los Angeles: https://povertyusa.org/stories/homelessness-food-deserts-los-angeles
Sacramento: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/0227b337c8364bedbd56547cbf9ef5a5
San Diego: https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/dam/sdc/lueg/food-system-initiative/sdc-food-deserts.pdf
San Bernardino and Riverside counties: https://www.dailybulletin.com/2022/10/14/access-to-food-a-problem-throughout-riverside-san-bernardino-counties/
But hey, they tried and failed to do something about it in Sonoma County about 10 years ago- https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/santa-rosas-food-desert-law-rescinded-after-one-store-qualifies/
Again, these places aren’t being closed. They are being sold to a different grocery giant. The issue at hand is monopoly and price fixing, not fewer grocery stores.
Did you read the article you posted about Santa Rosa? That law was pushed into place so one guy could open a Smart & Final. There was already a Lola’s (independently owned grocery store), Target with grocery section and a Costco there. How is that a food desert?
He also didn’t like that the law had the appearance of being written specifically to help one property owner get a new tenant. Commercial real estate broker Tom Laugero, who was working to get Smart & Final into the Santa Rosa Town Center space, petitioned the council to pass the law. […] “We corrupted our process,” Wysocky said. “We took 12-year-old statistics from the federal government and molded our process just to help this one tenant out. And that’s not OK.”
The issue is this massive monopoly, not really being mitigated by the anti trust regulators
“Muhhh thin margins” cries rent seeker as he inflates the price of foods into record profits.
They are looking to close 124 stores here in Washington. Much of the state will only have one option for groceries. This NEEDS to be blocked.
This merger is not a good idea.
Seen this happen before. They’ll “close” these stores then a buddy company “buys” them, setup shop, inevitably fails, and they get bought up again by the same original company.
No more supermarket mega mergers! These create bigger food deserts in already undeserved areas
I sure hope this doesn’t go through. Albertsons is already too big, their regular prices are high, although their sale prices are okay, they make their customers jump through hoops to get those sale prices. I miss Lucky.
Lucky was great!
Further north that article seems to go is Lompoc,
I have no doubt there are locations in the East Bay that will be closing as well.
Also fuck they’re trying to turn Lompoc, a fucking agricultural town, into a food desert.
A Pavilions on the list just got a huge teardown/remodel. That will likely be owned by another grocery store chain if this merger goes through.
