There are lots of supermarket chains around the country.

There's Shaws and Fred Meyer, food for less and Ralph's. But many of these

chains are owned by just two companies.

Albertsons and Kroger.

I think most people know what a Kroger is. Albertsons maybe a little bit less so, but most people know what these are,

but they don't't I don't think

they grasp how many different brands they have. That's our colleague Patrick Thomas.

He covers the food supply chain, from agriculture to grocery stores.

For example, my parents shop at a grocery store

at Omaha, Nebraska called Bakers.

Who owns Bakers, you ask?ger's owned them for over 20 years and I can use their

phone number for like the loyalty program at the Marianos here in Chicago, both are Kroger stores.

We go on vacation to Arizona.

There's a fries, and they once again use the same phone number,

it's still a Kroger.

So there's all these different brands, and they're,

you know, the more name-brand stuff they're pretty

much just two companies. But Albertsons and Kroger are trying to merge their

companies to become a supermarket empire. In October of

2022 they announced a 25 billion dollar deal that would combine their over 5,000

stores around the country. The company said this move

would allow them to slash prices for consumers. But on Monday, the Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit to block the deal,

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