Federal Government Blocks Merger of Largest Grocery Chains in America — Now One’s Suing

Albertsons and Kroger are the two largest grocery only chain stores in America, and they wanted to become one. Earlier this year, the two giants started the process of merging in what would have been the largest grocery store chain merger in American history.

But for the past three weeks, a trial in Oregon has had the FTC pitted against the two companies.

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) argues that the merger would lead to a monopoly, which would lead to increased grocery prices and less leverage for unionized workers.

If you’ve ever played the board game Monopoly, you know that once you have control of the block, the game is over.

It’s the same in the grocery business. If one chain owns all of the chains, they then can control the pricing dynamic and nobody would be able to say or do anything about it. That’s why the FTC wanted to step in and block the merger, and they did.

A judge ruled in favor of the FTC, agreeing that the merger would wreak havoc on the grocery industry.

Now, after almost owning Albertsons for about $25 billion, Kroger now has to go back to competing with the brand like nothing ever happened. And the competition is getting even less friendly as of a few hours ago.

Albertsons is now suing Kroger, claiming that Kroger did not do the things it had agreed on in order to help get the deal done.

Had the deal happened, get this: The merger would have essentially created a $200 billion company, with about 5,000 stores in 48 states and the District of Columbia.

That would have been dangerous power given to one grocery company in a time where grocery prices in America are already inflated.