Colorado grocery workers protest Kroger-Albertsons merger as antitrust trial begins in Denver • Colorado Newsline

Kroger, based in Ohio and operating more than 2,700 grocery stores nationwide, first announced plans in 2022 to acquire Idaho-based Albertsons, which operates more than 2,200 locations. The deal, one of the largest retail mergers ever proposed, has been met with fierce opposition from labor unions and consumer advocates who fear consolidation could lead to higher prices and reduced workers’ wages and bargaining power.

Earlier this year, the companies detailed a divestment plan in which they propose selling 579 locations nationwide – including 91 Safeway stores in Colorado – to New Hampshire-based C&S Wholesale Grocers to address antitrust concerns. But critics of the plan cast C&S, a supplier that currently operates just 23 retail locations nationwide, as a struggling company with shaky finances unable to operate its 579 newly acquired stores, as an “effective competitor” to the combined Kroger-Albertsons giant.

Carol McMillian, a King Soopers employee and member of UFCW Local 7 for more than 20 years, said Monday that she fears the Kroger-Albertsons deal will lead to a repeat of the “horror” that grocery workers experienced after the 2015 Albertsons merger. and Safeway.

“There have been store closures, there have been job losses, there have been devastated communities,” McMillian said. “There were other businesses that were destroyed. After the devastation, large, empty buildings remained.”

Weiser’s lawsuit echoes these concerns, arguing that the terms of the 2015 merger, which included the divestment of 168 stores of the small regional grocery chain Haggen, “failed entirely to mitigate the anticompetitive effects of Albertsons’ acquisition of Safeway.”

“Haggen went bankrupt within months of selling the assets, (Albertsons) repurchased many stores, and many others soon closed,” including 20 stores in Colorado, according to the state lawsuit. He similarly calls the Kroger-Albertsons plan an attempt to eliminate the companies’ “worst and least desirable stores,” which “shows that Kroger is unwilling to face a strong competitor after the merger.”

A Kroger spokesman did not respond to a request for comment Monday. Kroger and Albertsons executives defended their merger plan as a necessary step to help brick-and-mortar grocers compete with big retailers like Walmart and delivery services like those provided by Amazon, promising it would lead to “lower prices and more choice.” ” for consumers.

In addition to Weiser’s lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Denver, the merger was challenged by the Federal Trade Commission. Earlier this month, a three-week trial in the case ended in a U.S. District Court in Oregon. Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson also filed a lawsuit blocking the merger. The terms of the proposed Kroger acquisition expire on Oct. 9, after which the parties will be able to renegotiate or exit the deal.

In a statement released last week, Weiser said his lawsuit was the result of a year-long investigation and 19 listening sessions conducted in communities across the state, in which he called the proposed deal “unfavorable to buyers, workers, suppliers and farmers.”

“Nearly two years since the companies announced their merger, we finally have a chance to prove in court why this transaction would be bad for Colorado and the country,” Weiser said.