A day after a federal judge in Oregon refused to allow the $25 million merger of retailers Kroger and Albertsons to proceed, the deal has gone south. Albertsons is no longer pursuing the merger and is instead suing Kroger for breach of contract.
There merger would have combined Kroger, which is the nation’s 5th largest retailer, with Albertsons, which is the 10th largest. The two wanted to combine so they could compete with Walmart, Costco, Sam’s Club, and other major retailers. The Federal Trade Commission, under the Biden Administration, opposed the deal, as did labor unions and Rep. Mary Peltola of Alaska.
“We have made the difficult decision to terminate the merger agreement,” Albertsons CEO Vivek Sankaran on Wednesday in a prepared statement. The company says now that Kroger failed to uphold its end of the deal by pursuing all avenues of getting regulatory approval for the merger from the Federal Trade Commission.
Kroger owns Fred Meyer multi-retailer chain, Ralphs, Dillons, Smith’s, King Soopers, Fry’s, QFC, City Market, Owen’s, Jay C, Pay Less, Baker’s, Gerbes, Harris Teeter, Pick ‘n Save, and Metro Market. Albertsons owns Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s, Acme, Tom Thumb, Randalls, United Supermarkets, Pavilions, Star Market, and Haggen.
This is a win for Alaska consumers
With all the lawyers being paid by the people we buy our groceries from , the administration has now contributed to making your groceries more expensive. Anyone that believes government interference in private enterprise in any way benefits the consumer, here is a news flash. Every time the government interferes with private enterprise, the consumer gets shafted. The Standard Oil debacle and the Ma Bell breakup are two huge indicators of what happens to the consumer when government attempts to screw with a perfectly good system.