Free Republic

The buck stops with them. North America’s second-largest supermarket chain is warning its suppliers that it won’t allow price hikes due to President Trump’s tariff spree. Albertsons, which operates over 2,200 grocery stores — including Balducci’s, Kings and Acme in the New York area, blasted out a missive to its suppliers late last month, explaining that suppliers must get authorization for significant price hikes. “With few exceptions, we are not accepting cost increases due to tariffs,” stated the letter, first uncovered by American Economic Liberties Project researcher Matt Stoller.

Albertsons, America's second-largest grocery chain, is reportedly informing suppliers that will be affected by the new Trump administration tariffs that it's not the company's problem, according to a recent letter:Albertsons, which owns 2,200 grocery stores across the U.S., sent a letter to suppliers in late March spelling out how it would deal with price hikes. “With few exceptions, we are not accepting cost increases due to tariffs,” the letter read (emphasis in the original). The letter laid out the grocer's reason for the policy was "maintaining the value propositions our customers expect.” In other words, to keep grocery prices low...

Albertsons said Wednesday that it has terminated a $25 billion merger agreement with Kroger and will sue the grocery giant, alleging the company didn’t do enough to get the deal done. Judges in Washington and Oregon on Tuesday blocked the deal, delivering a win to federal regulators and consumer advocates who argued the merger could harm competition, consumers and workers and push prices up. “Rather than fulfill its contractual obligations to ensure that the merger succeeded, Kroger acted in its own financial self-interest, repeatedly providing insufficient divestiture proposals that ignored regulators’ concerns. Kroger’s self-serving conduct, taken at the expense of...

A U.S. District Judge in Oregon has blocked a $25 billion-bid by supermarket giant Kroger to take over rival Albertsons after ruling that the Federal Trade Commission's concerns about the merger's impact on market consolidation were valid. Judge Adrienne Nelson said Tuesday afternoon that a merger between the two companies would end up harming consumers. The two companies "engage in substantial head-to-head competition and the proposed merger would remove that competition," Ferguson wrote. As a result, the proposed merger would likely to lead to outcomes that "unilaterally" harm consumers, and is thus "presumptively unlawful. " Judge Ferguson also ruled the...

Treasurers and state financial officers representing 14 states sent letters Monday to Costco, Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons, and McKesson calling on C-suite leaders to resist political pressure to begin selling the chemical abortion drug mifepristone at their pharmacies. The letters were signed by state financial officers of Texas, Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. The letters follow similar outreach in August from firms, financial advisors, and thousands of Costco members representing more than $100 billion in assets under management, including more than $172 million in ownership of the five retailers. “We...

A diverse coalition of firms, financial advisors, and thousands of Costco members sent a series of letters Monday to Costco, Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons, and McKesson calling on C-suite leaders to resist political pressure to begin selling chemical abortion drugs at their pharmacies. The letters were signed by Christian financial technology firm Inspire Insight, financial advisor David Bahnsen, proxy voting and corporate engagement consultant Jerry Bowyer, and GuideStone Financial Services. Together, the signatories represent over $100 billion in assets under management, including more than $172 million in ownership of the five retailers. Six thousand Costco members also signed a petition to...

Washington, Arizona, Colorado, California, and Oregon would see the biggest number of stores flipped to C&S.. Kroger and Albertsons have released a list of hundreds of stores that would be divested to C&S Wholesale Grocers if federal regulators approve its proposed $24.6 billion merger deal, and the states with the largest numbers include Washington, Arizona, and Colorado. Under the proposal, Kroger and Albertsons would divest stores in Washington (124), Arizona (101), Colorado (91), California (63), Oregon (62), Illinois (35), Texas (28), Nevada (16), and Alaska (18). Several states would see 10 or fewer stores divested, including: Idaho (10), New Mexico...

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...