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Kroger to buy Albertsons?

Started by elsmere241, October 13, 2022, 03:36:57 PM

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someone17

#50
Quote from: NWI_Irish96 on October 15, 2022, 12:50:14 PM
In Northwest Indiana, there are no Kroger stores. There are a couple Jewel/Osco, owned by Albertson's. The largest market share is Strack & Van Tyl, which is locally owned. Aldi, Meijer and Wal-mart are probably with Jewel/Osco in the next tier after Strack.

I'm from the complete opposite side of Indiana (Southeast) and I'm honestly surprised you guys don't have Kroger. Albertson's is unheard of here (this is actually my first time hearing about them ever). I've definitely been up there in Chicagoland many but it looks like I haven't really paid attention to what grocery stores operate there, rather focusing on other stuff like relaxing

Cincinnati area/northern KY - Kroger collaborates with Walgreens to have something called a "Kroger Express" which is essentially a mini Kroger inside of a Walgreens, with Kroger selling stuff like meat, vegetables, eggs, and dairy while Walgreens sells beauty products and pharmaceutical products. It's been a while since I've been in one but I think there is some overlap between the products each offer.

I think I also saw a CVS pharmacy inside of a Walgreens in or around Norwood? I'm still confused...


bing101



kphoger

Quote from: bandit957 on October 20, 2022, 12:31:25 AM
When I was about 4 years old, someone soiled their pants at Kroger and we called it "the Kroger incident."

I tried describing the nature of your posts to my wife yesterday at dinner, and I found it exceedingly difficult to summarize.
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Male pronouns, please.

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WillWeaverRVA

Quote from: bing101 on October 20, 2022, 11:31:50 AM
I hope other parties get the divested Kroger/Albertsons stores where there are areas of concern surrounding monopoly in some parts of the USA.  Here is some of the competition for now and some of them may exist only on the regional level.

(list)

Yeah, pretty much all of those except Aldi are regional. Publix probably stands to benefit the most if Kroger unloads stores since it'll give them an opportunity to expand out of the Southeastern U.S.
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Bruce

Quote from: bing101 on October 20, 2022, 11:31:50 AM
I hope other parties get the divested Kroger/Albertsons stores where there are areas of concern surrounding monopoly in some parts of the USA.  Here is some of the competition for now and some of them may exist only on the regional level.

Such competition is not as widespread as Kroger and Albertsons brands, so you'd be traveling farther for groceries that might be more expensive and come with fewer choices. That's an extra burden for those who don't have reliable access to a car, or even those who can drive but live in areas with tons of traffic.

Some of these are also not full replacements. For example, Grocery Outlet (one of my preferred stores) mostly sells overstock goods from other retailers at a somewhat discounted rate; the produce there isn't of the best quality and many dry goods are much closer to expiration. They certainly don't have a full deli or bakery like most conventional grocery stores either.

bing101

Quote from: WillWeaverRVA on October 20, 2022, 01:09:29 PM
Quote from: bing101 on October 20, 2022, 11:31:50 AM
I hope other parties get the divested Kroger/Albertsons stores where there are areas of concern surrounding monopoly in some parts of the USA.  Here is some of the competition for now and some of them may exist only on the regional level.

(list)

Yeah, pretty much all of those except Aldi are regional. Publix probably stands to benefit the most if Kroger unloads stores since it'll give them an opportunity to expand out of the Southeastern U.S.
Aldi is not even known in the Sacramento and San Francisco areas. Yes some of this is because in the Sacramento and San Francisco areas we have Raley's, SaveMart, Seafood City, WinCo, Island Pacific, Grocery Outlet, Ranch 99, Cardenas step in as the competition of Safeway one of the labels affected by the Albertsons/Kroger Merger for now.
https://stores.aldi.us/ca
All of the Aldi Stores on this list are from Fresno to Southern California.


NJRoadfan

Quote from: jeffandnicole on October 14, 2022, 11:29:57 PM
In the Philly area, Albertsons owns Acme.  Acme tends to be a higher priced store, so the merger is generally being looked at as a good thing, hoping Kroger will bring prices down a bit.

Yeah right. In NC, Kroger rebranded all their triangle stores to Harris Teeter (higher priced store) shortly after buying the chain. Don't forget that Albertson's recently acquired the small upmarket Kings chain in Northern NJ. The running joke with ACME is that when they took over all the old A&P locations, that they left the old high price tags on everything. Those stores are among the nicest ACMEs inside though as A&P was a higher end chain. The only good thing about them is that they are rarely crowded due to the high prices. The Wakefern giant known as Shop-Rite really kills them on price.

bing101


bing101


Bruce

Washington's attorney general has sued to temporarily block the dividend payment to Albertsons investors with the goal of preventing the $4 billion from being siphoned from grocery operations while investigating whether the payment violates antitrust laws. The logic being that $4 billion would mean worse service at Albertsons/Safeway stores while the merger is being worked out.

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/wa-judge-pauses-albertsons-4b-payout-to-shareholders-amid-kroger-merger/

elsmere241


hbelkins

This deal has had a couple of local effects.

First off, Kroger is eliminating the hometown delivery program at the end of the year. Currently, they have a system where you can order online and delivery trucks go to a central location in towns where there isn't a Kroger store for customer pickup. There's been a Kroger Hometown service available in Jackson, Ky., for several months.

Also, Kroger had announced plans to build a new store in Jackson and had already initiated the zoning change process necessary for the location they'd selected. Now, those plans are on hold, and the stated reason is due to the acquisition of Albertsons.


Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

JoePCool14

I still wonder if the deal will be allowed to go through though. If politicians from both parties don't like it, it won't be allowed through unless they are paid off, which given the state of our Congress could very well happen.

:) Needs more... :sombrero: Not quite... :bigass: Perfect.
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SP Cook

Quote from: JoePCool14 on December 09, 2022, 10:43:33 AM
I still wonder if the deal will be allowed to go through though. If politicians from both parties don't like it, it won't be allowed through unless they are paid off, which given the state of our Congress could very well happen.

Good theory.

Except, of course, Congress has no say in the matter.  Mergers are handled by the FTC,  which is an executive agency and litigated in the courts.

Scott5114

Quote from: SP Cook on December 09, 2022, 12:33:54 PM
Quote from: JoePCool14 on December 09, 2022, 10:43:33 AM
I still wonder if the deal will be allowed to go through though. If politicians from both parties don't like it, it won't be allowed through unless they are paid off, which given the state of our Congress could very well happen.

Good theory.

Except, of course, Congress has no say in the matter.  Mergers are handled by the FTC,  which is an executive agency and litigated in the courts.

Eh, not really. Congress can kind of insert itself anywhere that it likes, since the FTC's existence and funding derives from laws created by Congress.

They could also pass a law saying "It shall be unlawful for the FTC to approve a merger between any companies based in Cincinnati, Ohio and any companies based in Boise, Idaho" or some nonsense like that.
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

Bruce

Quote from: elsmere241 on November 29, 2022, 03:49:53 PM
https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/29/business/kroger-albertsons-merger-ftc-antitrust/index.html

How this deal needs to be scrutinized thoroughly.

The Safeway-Albertsons-Haggen clusterfuck was a pretty bad deal for consumers here (basically Haggen's home region). We lost quite a few stores and it created food deserts all over that are slowly being filled back up thanks to some other chains (like Grocery Outlet) jumping in. A few of the ex-Haggen stores here are still sitting empty and rotting away; the "new" Haggens mostly use the same inventory as Safeway but with crappier service.

Teddy Roosevelt is rolling in his grave. There's far too many near-monopolies in various U.S. industries, but this one has the potential to hurt so many communities all at once.

bandit957

I just wish we could get more IGA stores again.
Might as well face it, pooing is cool

Rothman

Quote from: bandit957 on December 09, 2022, 08:00:00 PM
I just wish we could get more IGA stores again.
Heh.  The IGA in my mother's hometown in KY was absolutely disgusting. :D
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position(s) of NYSDOT.

kkt

When industry leaders merge, the burden should be on THEM to prove that they will NOT produce anticompetitive conditions, not on the FTC to prove that it would.

Grocery Outlet is better than nothing at all I guess, but it's nowhere near as good as a supermarket that's really trying, carries fresh fruits and vegetables, etc.

skluth

Quote from: kkt on December 10, 2022, 10:48:51 AM
When industry leaders merge, the burden should be on THEM to prove that they will NOT produce anticompetitive conditions, not on the FTC to prove that it would.

Grocery Outlet is better than nothing at all I guess, but it's nowhere near as good as a supermarket that's really trying, carries fresh fruits and vegetables, etc.

Businesses can rely on all sorts of accounting, demographic, and other statistical methods to "prove" they aren't producing anticompetitive conditions. That's basically handing them the keys to the henhouse. It falls on the government because it's a matter of who do you trust more to do the analysis honestly.

kkt

Quote from: skluth on December 10, 2022, 11:26:30 AM
Quote from: kkt on December 10, 2022, 10:48:51 AM
When industry leaders merge, the burden should be on THEM to prove that they will NOT produce anticompetitive conditions, not on the FTC to prove that it would.

Grocery Outlet is better than nothing at all I guess, but it's nowhere near as good as a supermarket that's really trying, carries fresh fruits and vegetables, etc.

Businesses can rely on all sorts of accounting, demographic, and other statistical methods to "prove" they aren't producing anticompetitive conditions. That's basically handing them the keys to the henhouse. It falls on the government because it's a matter of who do you trust more to do the analysis honestly.

Yeah.  Producing anticompetitive conditions is the basic reason these mergers happen.

hbelkins

Quote from: Rothman on December 09, 2022, 08:15:45 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on December 09, 2022, 08:00:00 PM
I just wish we could get more IGA stores again.
Heh.  The IGA in my mother's hometown in KY was absolutely disgusting. :D

IGA is more or less a supplier, not a chain. Each IGA is independently owned. Lots of small towns have them. They're going to be more prevalent in rural or remote areas that don't have Kroger stores or Walmart Supercenters.

There's a rather nice IGA in Jackson, but it's very expensive. If the local Walmart ever becomes a supercenter, or if the Kroger store actually gets built after the project was pulled due to the merger, Jackson IGA will be in a world of hurt.


Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

bandit957

There used to be a nice IGA in Fort Thomas that we went to all the time.
Might as well face it, pooing is cool

Big John

Quote from: hbelkins on December 10, 2022, 09:20:29 PM
Quote from: Rothman on December 09, 2022, 08:15:45 PM
Quote from: bandit957 on December 09, 2022, 08:00:00 PM
I just wish we could get more IGA stores again.
Heh.  The IGA in my mother's hometown in KY was absolutely disgusting. :D

IGA is more or less a supplier, not a chain. Each IGA is independently owned. Lots of small towns have them. They're going to be more prevalent in rural or remote areas that don't have Kroger stores or Walmart Supercenters.

There's a rather nice IGA in Jackson, but it's very expensive. If the local Walmart ever becomes a supercenter, or if the Kroger store actually gets built after the project was pulled due to the merger, Jackson IGA will be in a world of hurt.
When it was an acronym, it stood for Independent Grocers Alliance.



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