U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola is putting her thumb on the scale again, asking the Federal Trade Commission to not allow Kroger/Fred Meyer and Albertsons/Safeway to complete their $25 billion national merger. She is worried about a monopoly in Alaska.
In a letter to FTC Chair Lina Khan, Peltola said the threat the merging of the operations would harm competition and food security in Alaska.
“If the merger goes through, nearly all grocery stores in the Fairbanks North Star Borough would fall under the same ownership, with the exception of Costco and Walmart,” Peltola warned.
That is not exactly true, however. Other grocery stores in Alaska, however, include Three Bears, Target, Alaska Commercial Company, IGA, and several smaller stores, buying clubs, and food coops. Organic produce delivery service Full Circle Farms operates in 17 Alaska communities. Alaska has roughly the same variety of grocery stores as other states, although in the largest state in the union, competition is not always close, as it is in the Lower 48.
Peltola wrote, “Alaska already has an incredibly concentrated grocery store market, and potential divestments of stores resulting from the merger would threaten both competition and basic food security in many communities across the state. The five largest jurisdictions by population in Alaska are Anchorage, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Fairbanks, Juneau, and Kenai-Soldotna. In each of these communities, Fred Meyer (Kroger) and Carrs (Albertsons) are the primary competitors selling groceries and household goods. If the proposed merger goes through, store closures and reduced competition could result in a significantly reduced competition, or even a near-monopolistic landscape in a state that already has some of the highest costs of living in the United States.”
Joelle Hall, President of the Alaska AFL-CIO, agreed with Peltola. The AFL-CIO is one of Peltola’s biggest supporters and Peltola does not ever stray from the big union message that she is asked to support.
According to Supermarket News, the federal government has tightened its fist over mergers. The FTC sued Microsoft to stop it from buying Activision-Blizzard and crushed the Penquin Random House / Simon & Shuster publishing merger.
“The Kroger-Albertson deal is receiving more negative attention from those outside of Washington, D.C. A group of consumers have filed a class-action lawsuit and the Arizona Attorney General is looking into the merger. Unions representing more than 100,000 Kroger and Albertsons workers have been protesting the deal since it was first announced.There also has been two rounds of questioning from the FTC,” Supermarket News reported.
