Why we can't let Kroger buy Albertsons (with Stacy Mitchell)

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Civic Ventures

Business, Government, News, Politics

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 15 November 2022

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kroger wants to buy Albertsons and effectively become the second-largest grocery chain in the United States. This merger would result in less competition, rising grocery prices, and lower wages. Corporate greed has gotten us into this mess, but new federal anti-merger guidelines, and some tenacious Attorneys General, may just get us out. Returning guest Stacy Mitchell explains why mergers like this one are bad news for workers and shoppers alike. Stacy Mitchell is Co-Executive Director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a research and advocacy organization that challenges concentrated corporate power and works to build thriving, equitable communities. Twitter: @stacyfmitchell Institute for Local Self-Reliance: https://ilsr.org Stacy Mitchell Responds to Kroger’s Bid to Buy Albertsons https://ilsr.org/statement-kroger-albertsons-merger Report: How New Federal Anti-merger Guidelines Can Roll Back Corporate Concentration and Build Local Power https://ilsr.org/rolling-back-corporate-concentration-how-new-federal-anti-merger-guidelines-can-restore-competition-and-build-local-power Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Twitter: @PitchforkEcon Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Nick’s twitter: @NickHanauer

Transcript

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0:00.0	Frogers recently announced they are going to acquire Albertson's another case
0:05.6	where consolidation in industry is reducing consumer choice. It's hard to see any
0:13.8	upside to this merger for anybody other than top executives at these two
0:20.0	companies and their investors. Combined, Kroger and Albertson would control
0:24.3	more than 20% of grocery sales in the United States.
0:32.3	From the home offices of civic ventures in downtown Seattle, this is Pitchfork
0:36.7	economics with Nick Hanauer, the best place to get the truth about who gets what
0:41.4	and why.
0:48.4	I'm David Goldstein, senior fellow at Civic Ventures.
0:53.7	I'm Paul Constant and I'm a writer at Civic Ventures.
1:01.2	We've worked together for how many years, Paul?
1:04.6	Mine is a little one year gap in between.
1:07.6	I think like 15, almost 15, the better part of 15 years anyway.
1:12.4	Right, and for most of those years, we saw each other face to face just about every day.
1:18.3	It's true.
1:19.2	Up until, of course, the pandemic.
1:22.8	And as you know, Paul, you haven't seen a lot of me because I've been one of the
1:28.1	more careful people during the pandemic, not wanting to catch COVID.
1:33.9	Early in the pandemic, it was particularly a problem for me because I had
1:38.7	trouble getting groceries delivered as did a lot of other people.
1:43.6	And when I did manage to start getting groceries delivered a couple months in,
1:50.6	I settled on Safeway and I did it because you know me,
	...

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