Posted on 11/30/2022 1:38:43 PM PST by ChicagoConservative27
The top Democrat and Republican on the Senate’s antitrust committee led a grilling of the CEOs of Kroger and Albertsons on Tuesday over their planned $25 billion grocery megamerger, which comes after months of rising inflation that has hit consumers hard.
“The companies assure us that this is the merger that will make everything better,” said Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust and Consumer Rights.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
“Why do these senators give a *&&(&(? about this?”
Pure shakedown. They want their cut.
Because there is a ton of money invoved, and the crooks want to make sure some of that flows their way.
Yes.
There are plenty of other chains that compete.
What an important issue. /s
Klobuchar want more budgetary funding to say yes or no as regulators. That's pretty dangerous funny!
My thoughts exactly. Kroger and Albertson's want to merge? That still leaves Safeway, Harris Teeter, Giant, Ralph's, Piggly Wiggly, Aldi, Publix, Weis, and Gawd knows how many other regional and national chains.
The deal approval by the Regulators is like dragging a hundred dollar bill thru the trailer park on a string.
And they still won’t be as large as the WalMart grocery division.
“Because there is a ton of money invoved, and the crooks want to make sure some of that flows their way.”
EXACTLY!
How will letting them merge solve the climate crisis?
Safeway is actually owned by Albertson’s.
If the merger should go forward, it's not because all mergers should be approved or ignored as "not being the government's business", but because there is a healthy amount of competition besides Kroger's and Albertson's in the grocery sector.
Many Big Box stores like CostCo, Walmart, and Target sell groceries. There are a growing number of high end grocery stores like Whole Foods. There are foreign operated stores like Trader Joes and Aldi's and stores coming up from Mexico.
I believe this merger will go forward not because government hands will be greased, but because the union of these two grocery chains doesn't constitute a monopoly.
If any money changes hands it will be from unions hopelessly trying to stop the merger which they fear will lead to job losses and less clout for their members in the next contract negotiations.
Can’t remember who but in the late 1990s someone interviewed a Russian about the US.
He said “In your country your food distribution centers are much more efficient than ours.”
After that I saw the truth of ours being a form of Communist
distribution centers run by insider elites with government insiders cooperating if they got their cut. Now our supply chain problems have brought us closer to the pure Communist style.
Twice my local Kroger totally ran out of milk (not counting one over priced gourmet brand about $2.70 more per gallon.)
As I approached I saw a man carefully reading and pondering something. It was one of the last two over priced quarts. He bought one. I refused.
These idiots don’t realize the very real possibility of such a merger causing an enormous crushing failure due the shear size of the ship. It’s a really big risk at a time the cost of capital is 400% higher than a year ago.
This merger should not be allowed.
just like all the mergers of the major media news orgs should not have been allowed.
I keep hearing that merging will save 1/2 million dollars which will be passed on to consumers. what a load of BS
get rid of one exec and you can save 1/2 million dollars.
the only grocery near me is Krogar and they are fascist fruks.
“papers please” and we are going to record and sell your info too.
No.
I spent a lot of time telling them that my personal info was none of their business, had the cops called and I almost had to sue them before they relented.
Probably I should have sued them anyway
Ordinarily, the govt should keep out, however in this case, how about a provisional "no", come back in 5 years.
Safeway is owned by Albertson’s if I am not mistaken.
I was at a Walmart today with my wife. We walked past the shoe department. It was scary. About 2,000 pairs of essentially the same black shoe in every size. I mentioned to my wife it looked like a shoe store in East Germany or the Soviet Union in the 80’s.
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