Over the weekend, this published….
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair to Attend Las Vegas Sessions on Kroger-Albertsons Merger:
“Kroger is the parent company of Smith's Food and Drug, while Albertsons owns Safeway and Vons stores.
“The two companies announced a $24.6 billion merger last year, and the deal is expected to be completed in early 2024 if approved by state and federal regulators.”
Let us do what the FTC should do - but probably won’t. Which is examine the nation’s grocery store landscape….
Top 10 Grocery Retailers of 2023:
(Below are the percentages of retail marketshare)
“1. Walmart 16.8%
“2. Amazon 14.28
“3. Costco 6.51%
“4. Kroger 4.12%
“5. Target 3.03%
“6. Albertsons 2.13%”
So you have prospectively merging - Companies #4 and #6. Which combined - would only represent 6.25% of the marketplace.
Which wouldn’t move them up the list - even one spot. They’d still be #4 - still behind Costco.
And they’d still be less than half the size of both Amazon and Walmart.
This is yet another example of a merger that actually helps consumers.
Hey Biden FTC: Not All Marketshare Consolidation Is Bad
If you can get more legitimate challengers to the current market dominators - that is a very good thing.
And again, this merger doesn’t even really do that. But Kroger and Albertsons combined - are a better competitor to Amazon and Walmart than K and A are apart.
But FTC Chair Lina Khan - is yet again looking to do the bidding of the biggest of the nation’s Big Businesses. Because that’s how the Joe Biden Administration does business.
Market Caps:
Amazon $1.31 trillion
Walmart $438.43 billion
Kroger $32.63 billion
Albertsons $13.25 billion
We’ll do the math:
Kroger-Albertsons combined - would have a $45.88 billion market cap.
And the FTC is looking into blocking the merger.
Which would prevent Kroger-Albertsons from better competing against Amazon and Walmart - which have a combined $1.75 trillion market cap.
Allowing the merger - isn’t anti-consumer. Blocking it is.
Allowing the merger - is anti-Big Business.
And helping Big Business - appears to be what the Biden Administration is all about.
Because Big Businesses can bribe Big Government so much better than can the Little Guys.
Want an even more egregious example?...:
“Biden’s FTC is going small - at the behest of the Bigs….
“‘“Biden Administration Moves to Block JetBlue’s $3.8B Spirit Takeover’…
“‘“Under anarcho-tyrant Lina Khan, the FTC has dramatically expanded its actions against the paymasters’ enemies - while doing nothing to the paymasters.
“‘“Never mind that the paymasters are almost always far more deserving of FTC scrutiny….
“‘“The Big Four Airlines (American, Delta, Southwest and Unites) can best afford to best bribe government.’"
“Biden’s FTC is ‘Pay to Play.’ And it is ‘Pay to Have Us Leave the Playing Field Entirely to You.’
“There seems to be an unwritten monetary cap on FTC action. If a company is Big - it can act with nigh total impunity from ACTUAL FTC scrutiny….
“‘(T)he FTC ignores the Big Four’s market domination - which is a combined 84.8%.’
“And instead - attempts to block Jet-Blue Spirit’s relatively minuscule $3.8 billion merger:
“Spirit and JetBlue are #s 6 and 7 - but the drop-off after the Big Four is titanic….
““The two airlines combined wouldn’t be 1/3 as big as just #4 United.’…
“This is clearly a merger that will not hurt consumers. In fact, it will most likely benefit them.
“Scraping and cobbling together two (or more) also-rans? Might actually create a legitimate f ifth competitor to the Big Four that currently dominate the marketplace - and the consumers therein.
“The Biden FTC should be championing this merger - not attempting to block it."
And oh look: Biden, Inc - is STILL blocking it. Via the FTC's duplicative alter ego - the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division….
Spirit Airlines Falls Amid Report DOJ to Move Forward With JetBlue Trial Even With Divestiture Plan
Since the Biden Administration rightly, righteously championing these mergers - would be a minor nuisance to their major Big Business cronies?
It ain’t happening.
As a consumer who shops at Safeway (Albertsons), I disagree with you. First, there is no comparison between Safeway (Albertsons) or Fred Meyer (Kroger) and Walmart or Winco even when it comes to meat. Walmart's meat (and Winco's meat) is terrible. They also do not have the range of food items that Safeway and Albertsons carry.
Amazon does not have a store as far as I know and purchases must be delivered. Therefore, you can't really consider Amazon in the same category as Kroger or Albertsons. Delivery-only food creates a number of problems for people who work for a living and do not work from home. In Portland your groceries have a high chance of getting stolen. I have never used Amazon and hope to never have to.
Costco is membership-driven and does not carry many items. I belong to Costco and still have to buy half of what I need from Safeway. Costco is not in the same category as Kroger or Albertsons. Also, Costco meats are not the best quality either.
Obama allowed the Albertsons to buy Safeway. Since then, Albertsons closed the stores that were near each other and also stores that were near Fred Meyer (Kroger). Most of those stores are still vacant today. It created an effective oligopoly, where it seems they are no longer competing in the same area with each other.
A Kroger/Albersons merger would allow Kroger to get rid of long-time, higher paid Safeway (Albertsons) employees, because that's what they did when they bought Fred Meyer. They will also close stores, because why not? Since they will have no effective competition, they will probably get rid of products that don't give them enough profit. If people want or need those products, they will have to go to New Seasons or Amazon.
I disagree the merger will be better for the consumer.