FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For media inquiries, please contact: Reggie Rucker, ILSR Communications Director
“Blocking this merger is a crucial step in restoring healthy competition to food retailing.” Stacy Mitchell Reacts to the FTC’s legal action against the Kroger-Albertsons merger.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (February 26, 2024) – Stacy Mitchell, co-executive director at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), made the following statement in response to the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) decision to take formal legal action to stop Kroger’s acquisition of Albertsons.
“The proposed mega-merger between Kroger and Albertsons would have been a disaster for American communities. We applaud the Federal Trade Commission for blocking it.
“This decision shows the FTC sees what we have long argued –– there was no upside to this merger for anybody other than the top executives at these two companies and their investors. Concentration in grocery retail has already caused food prices to skyrocket. We know from past grocery mergers that this one would have sent prices for consumers even higher. It would have left many communities, especially on the West Coast, with little to no competition or choice about where to shop. And it would have hurt retail workers by giving the combined companies even more leverage to push down wages and dictate terms.
“This decision shows that the FTC understands how the outsized power of big retailers is damaging the entire food system. These two giants already exert their power as dominant buyers of food and goods by bullying suppliers into giving them discounts and benefits they don’t offer to smaller food retailers. A merged Kroger-Albertsons would have been able to put even more pressure on suppliers, putting smaller stores, food producers, and farmers at even more of an unfair disadvantage and threatening their ability to stay in business and serve their communities. This merger would have undoubtedly led to even more consolidation among processors and the closure of independent grocery stores, furthering the proliferation of food deserts in underserved rural and Black and brown communities across the country.
“Blocking this merger is a crucial step in restoring healthy competition to food retailing. We hope to see the FTC follow it by taking action soon to reinvigorate enforcement of the Robinson Patman Act and end the predatory buying tactics of Walmart, Dollar General, and other big chains.
“Today’s decision also shows that the FTC has learned from its past mistakes, rejecting the companies’ offer to sell off stores as a way to supposedly “fix” this blatantly anticompetitive merger. In doing so, the FTC is avoiding the kind of calamity seen in the aftermath of the Safeway-Albertsons merger.
“After 40 years of allowing corporations to accumulate unchecked power to raise prices, rip off workers, and crush small businesses, it is clear that the Commission understands the harms that consolidation inflicts on Americans and is committed to restoring open, competitive markets. Today’s action from the FTC signals a return to the heart of antitrust.”
For more from ILSR on grocery and market power issues, see:
- Stacy MItchell in the New York Times: The Real Reason Your Groceries Are Getting So Expensive
- Boxed Out: How Big Retailers are Flexing Their Supply Chain Power to Kill Off Small Businesses
- Video: Fixing the Food Gap with FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya and a panel of community activists, independent grocers, farmer advocates
- Building Local Power podcast with Ron Knox and Kennedy Smith: Cleanup on Aisle 1990
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