Colorado Attorney General reacts after grocery store merger between Albertsons, Kroger called off
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser reacted Wednesday after learning the proposed merger between Albertsons and Kroger, the parent company of King Soopers and City Markets, will no longer move forward. CBS News reported that Albertsons abandoned the $25 billion merger with Kroger after a judge blocked the deal a day earlier.
On Tuesday, a federal judge temporarily blocked Kroger's $24.6 billion acquisition of Albertsons, ruling that the proposed union would lessen competition for grocery shoppers. The Federal Trade Commission sued over the $25 billion deal in February, asking that it be put on hold to allow more time for an FTC administrative judge to examine its potential impacts.
Kroger operates 148 King Soopers and City Market stores, and Albertsons operates 105 Safeway and Albertsons stores in the state. The FTC claims that allowing Kroger and Albertsons to merge would lead to less competition and higher prices.
Weiser celebrated Tuesday's ruling as a win for consumers, workers and local farmers. On Wednesday, he said the merger would have harmed competition.
"This merger was bad for Colorado. It was going to harm competition and the so-called divestiture remedies that were offered were insufficient to protect consumers and we needed to stop this merger," said Weiser.
In addition to the merger being abandoned, Albertsons filed a lawsuit against the rival grocery chain for breach of contract.
Consumers have noticed a drastic change in their grocery prices since 2020.
"The price has gone up but it doesn't change the thinking of what we buy," says Lakewood resident Tony Catbagan. "We've noticed that it's gone up about 20-25% more than what we used to pay."
His neighborhood Safeway on West Alameda Parkway was one of the 597 stores nationwide that faced the possibility of closure if the merger went through. He, and many other shoppers that spoke to CBS Colorado on Wednesday, indicated that they supported the idea of stopping the merger. To shoppers, more grocery stores meant more competition and more competition meant lower prices.
"I think more is better," Catbagan said. "You take this one away and you have to go to the one over there and I think prices might even go up more."
