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In October 2022, I shared a big announcement in the retail world: Two massive, U.S. grocery store chains, Kroger and Albertsons, had agreed to merge, in a deal worth nearly $25 billion:CNBC:Rival grocers Kroger and Albertsons on Friday announced plans to team up.The companies said Kroger agreed to buy Albertsons for $34.10 a share in a deal valued at $24.6 billion. Albertsons shares had closed Thursday at $28.63 after surging on reports that a deal was imminent.Kroger is the second-largest grocer by market share in the United States, behind Walmart, and Albertsons is fourth, after Costco. Together, Kroger and Albertsons...

The Federal Trade Commission on Monday announced that it filed a lawsuit to stop Kroger Company’s proposed $24.6 billion acquisition of Albertsons Companies, Inc. over concerns that the merger would create a monopoly. The FTC said that the deal, which is the largest proposed supermarket merger in U.S. history, is "anticompetitive" and will end competition between the two chains, which would lead to higher grocery prices and lower quality products. "Kroger’s acquisition of Albertsons would lead to additional grocery price hikes for everyday goods, further exacerbating the financial strain consumers across the country face today," FTC's Bureau of Competition Director...

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a lawsuit to block the proposed merger between Kroger and Albertsons because of the negative ramifications he says it would have for residents, such as fewer options and higher prices. In the suit, filed on Monday, Ferguson argued that the proposed $24.6 billion merger, announced in October 2022, "will likely substantially lessen supermarket competition or tend to create a monopoly in many Washington communities," where both companies currently compete. This would likely increase prices of food and other grocery products in supermarkets offered to Washington consumers while simultaneously decreasing "the quantity and quality...

Opposition to the $24.6 billion Kroger, Albertsons merger does not appear to be dying down as the Teamsters union announced they oppose the deal. The Teamsters, a labor union representing members in the U.S. and Canada, said that some 22,000 of their members work for Kroger and Albertsons, across the companies’ stores, distribution centers, and manufacturing plants. The Teamsters said they had been engaging in talks with both Kroger and Albertsons over the last few months, but little progress was made regarding some of the concerns the union had around the merger deal, including job security. “In our discussions with...

Big Food is making its move into the “digital health space” as grocery chain giant Albertsons announced the roll-out of its “Sincerely Health” platform along with a new app where customers “can connect data from wearables, integrate prescriptions, design their diet and make telehealth or vaccination appointments.” Albertsons, which includes other mega grocery chains such as Safeway, Vons, Shaw’s, Jewel-Osco, Acme and Tom Thumb, among others, is currently in talks to merger with Kroger, another mega grocery chain, which would give them 36% control over the grocery supermarket business in the United States. Walmart, the largest grocery chain in the...

Members of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust and Consumer Rights questioned the woke CEOs of grocery store giants Kroger and Albertsons about their proposed $25 billion merger last week. Fearing this deal will “raise prices, cut jobs and exacerbate inequality in food access through the closing of more locations,” unions and progressive advocacy groups oppose the deal and have lobbied the Biden administration to stop the planned merger, according to The Hill, During his questioning of Kroger CEO William Rodney McMullen, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican, delivered one of the best legislative smackdowns I’ve seen in...

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.

WASHINGTON — The attorneys general of California, Illinois and the District of Columbia are suing Albertsons in an effort to stop the grocery chain from paying a nearly $4 billion dividend to its shareholders. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., asks the court to block the payment until the attorneys general have reviewed Albertsons’ proposed merger with Kroger Co. The lawsuit is the second this week seeking to delay the dividend payment. The state of Washington's Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a similar lawsuit in state court Tuesday. Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons said Wednesday that both...

The combined sales of the two grocery store chains are nearly $210 billion, putting Kroger about $10 billion shy of U.S. food sales at Walmart, the world’s largest grocer. Kroger and Albertsons are expected to divest 100 to 375 stores to pacify antitrust concerns, leaving Kroger to operate more than 4,500 stores nationwide, according to the Enquirer. Albertsons’ investors will own a separate company that includes the divested stores. Both stores currently employ a combined 710,000 associates and operate 4,996 stores, 66 distribution centers, 52 manufacturing plants, 3,972 pharmacies and 2,015 fuel centers in 48 states and Washington D.C.

The donation is going to be split among several organizations. $2 million will be donated to the social justice efforts of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the National Urban League, $1 million to the company’s African American Associate Resource Group to partner with local organizations to support communities, and $1 million in a reserve fund for social justice and diversity initiatives in the future. Another $1 million was donated to local initiatives in a specific area in the Albertsons division.

An African-American woman filed a civil rights lawsuit Monday, April 10, against Albertsons and its parent company, Safeway, alleging that its managers took no steps to correct or apologize for the actions of a checkout clerk at an Irvine store who incorrectly assumed the woman was on food stamps. Jenna Watkinson, a spokeswoman for Safeway, said company officials have not seen the lawsuit and “do not comment on pending litigation.” “However, any time we interact with a customer, our goal is to ensure that they are treated with the utmost respect and courtesy,” she said Wednesday. Deirdre Harris, 42, who...

Grocery store chain Albertsons Cos. is buying back 33 stores the government required it to sell when it acquired rival Safeway Inc. earlier this year, a highly unusual development approved by a judge on Tuesday that highlights a misfire by U.S. antitrust enforcers. Little has gone according to plan since the Federal Trade Commission allowed the Albertsons-Safeway tie-up in January on the condition that the companies sell 168 stores to preserve competition in several Western states. Without the divestitures, Albertsons would be too dominant in 130 local markets, the FTC said when it agreed to a settlement with the merging...

ORLANDO, Fla. -- A Central Florida supermarket chain is about to close almost all of its local stores. It's part of a move by Albertson's to end the majority of its operations in the state. For the last year or so, Albertson's has been shrinking the number of stores it operates in Florida. In Central Florida, six more stores are going to close in the next few weeks. Only a store in Altamonte Springs will remain open. Albertson's says the Florida market is not good for it, and with fuel and utility costs being what they are, it's closing all...

A tentative deal has been struck in the negotiations between representatives from three supermarket chains and the union representing 62,000 Southland grocery store workers, the president of the workers union confirmed. ... Details of the agreement have not yet been made public. Any tentative agreement struck at the negotiation table will still have to be voted on by union members before it is approved. The agreement will be presented to union members for ratification later this week. Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons issued the following joint statement: "We are pleased to have reached a tentative settlement agreement with the union that...

California grocer labor talks ongoing, deadline passes Sunday September 18, 2011 10:49pm PDT (Reuters) - Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons remained in talks with the union representing 62,000 Southern California supermarket workers as the deadline for canceling their labor contract passed on Sunday evening. The United Food and Commercial Workers union on Thursday issued a required 72-hour notice of its plan to cancel its extended contract, a move that opened the door for workers to strike if an acceptable deal could not be reached. "Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons are still at the table with the union. Progress is being made,...

No breakthroughs were reported as round-the-clock negotiations approached a 7:10 p.m. strike deadline set by the union representing 62,000 grocery store clerks in Southern California. Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons officials continued to meet with the workers' representatives at an undisclosed location, while union stewards spent the day passing out picket signs. No grocery chain official would comment, but a union spokesman said no progress had been made today. Clerks at a pair of Ralphs and Vons supermarkets in Santa Monica today said both chains had not reduced their deliveries of fresh baked goods, produce, milk and meat to the stores....

Talks continued Saturday but employees could walk off job Sunday night Mike Knapp wasn’t sympathetic when he heard the news that grocery workers in Southern California might walk off the job in coming days. “Go ahead and strike, lots of people need a job,” he wrote Friday in comments on SignOnSanDiego.com. “I will see all of you as I cross the picket line.” He’s among many people who are criticizing the United Food and Commercial Workers for considering a strike on Albertsons, Vons and Ralphs at a time when county unemployment is at 10.2 percent, a record number of people...

Charging that management is “stonewalling,” union grocery workers in Southern California have issued a 72-hour notice cancelling their contract extension, paving the way for a strike. Eight months of negotiations between seven United Food and Commercial Workers locals representing 62,000 workers and management of supermarket chains owned by Kroger, Safeway and Supervalu have been hampered by disagreements over health care contributions. The union has charged that management’s proposal would “bankrupt health plans and eliminate entirely health care access” for employees. ... “We returned to the bargaining table ready to compromise and make a deal that keeps our employers profitable but...

The union representing Southland grocery workers issued a 72-hour notice Thursday night canceling the grocery contract extension, paving the way for a strike. "We returned to the bargaining table ready to compromise and make a deal that keeps our employers profitable but protects the jobs of our members," said a statement from the United Food and Commercial Workers, which represents workers at Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons. "Instead, we got more of the same stonewalling from management. They are unwilling to compromise and are more concerned about hoarding their billions in profits than reaching a fair deal for their employees. We...

<p>One of the nation's major grocery store chains is eliminating self-checkout lanes in an effort to encourage more human contact with its customers.</p> <p>Albertsons LLC, which operates 217 stores in seven Western and Southern states, will eliminate all self-checkout lanes in the 100 stores that have them and will replace them with standard or express lanes, according to published reports.</p>