1. Supermarket prices are up 13% in the last year and profits are at record highs

There isn't much competition to keep prices in check

Now, the nation's largest supermarket chain (@[email protected]) wants to buy the 2nd-largest (@[email protected])

What could go wrong?

https://popular.info/p/buying-the-competition

Buying the competition

Over the last year, prices for groceries are up 13%. Meanwhile, the price of food at restaurants has increased more slowly at 8.5%. Why? Restaurants are a highly-competitive industry. The grocery industry, on the other hand, has been consolidating. The total number of grocery stores in the United States "

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@[email protected] @[email protected] 2. @[email protected] recorded a $3.5 billion profit in 2021 and projects an even larger haul, $4.9 billion, in 2022. Kroger itself has fueled the consolidation, acquiring a slew of competing chains, including Harris Teeter and Fred Meyer.

Now, Kroger wants to get MUCH BIGGER

@[email protected] @[email protected] 3. @[email protected] recently announced an agreement to purchase @[email protected], the nation's second-largest grocery store chain, for about $25 billion. Albertsons itself acquired another major competitor, Safeway, in 2015 for $9.2 billion.

https://popular.info/p/buying-the-competition

Buying the competition

Over the last year, prices for groceries are up 13%. Meanwhile, the price of food at restaurants has increased more slowly at 8.5%. Why? Restaurants are a highly-competitive industry. The grocery industry, on the other hand, has been consolidating. The total number of grocery stores in the United States "

Popular Information

4. The combined grocery behemoth that would operate nearly 5,000 stores and control 22% of the grocery market in the United States, trailing only Walmart

Kroger-Albertsons and Walmart "would control 70 percent or more of the [grocery] market in 167 cities in the United States."

5. Kroger claims the merger would benefit consumers, pledging to "invest $500 million to lower prices" over four years as part of the transaction.

Sounds good but that's $125 million per year out of $200 billion+ in revenue.

Effectively nothing.

https://popular.info/p/buying-the-competition

Buying the competition

Over the last year, prices for groceries are up 13%. Meanwhile, the price of food at restaurants has increased more slowly at 8.5%. Why? Restaurants are a highly-competitive industry. The grocery industry, on the other hand, has been consolidating. The total number of grocery stores in the United States "

Popular Information
@juddlegum
Yes we all know that corporations love to spend money for the sole purpose of lowering prices to their consumers. That's in "Economics for Dummies", right?