pseudo3d wrote: ↑December 6th, 2022, 10:34 pm
Politically, Albertsons/Kroger picked a fight with blue strongholds that aren't going to lose power or change anytime soon. Kroger hasn't really done much in terms of how they expect the post-merger to play out, only speaking in vague terms of lowering prices, etc. with no plan for SpinCo or even how the divisions will be drawn out.
Kroger already has low prices and can compete with the best of them, unless they want to go with the Walmart method of strong-arming suppliers, which is not a good thing for consumers.
Besides NorCal (which presents problems in itself), the markets that Kroger doesn't already have a foot in are either rural areas, areas with Safeway/Albertsons running a distant second, or getting crunched by newer competition.
Kroger will absolutely have more clout with suppliers after this merger goes through. This is where the consumer loses the deal. If you have multiple grocers and multiple product manufacturers, those different manufacturers are hungry for volume and they will make deals to promote their products. But if there is just Kroger (no more Safeway, no more Albertsons) then there are fewer grocers to "work with" to make deals for the suppliers. This is why this merger is bad news for the consumer who likes to bargain shop promotions. Sure Kroger will throw a few bones with better deals on private label and other price cuts and that likely will benefit more customers anyway, if they put their programs into these stores...
The worst thing I fear is Kroger takes a look at this and says, now that this Albertsons/Safeway competitor is gone, let's go ahead and just adopt best practices that will maximize profits. Wow, look at those Safeway margins on center store and Safeway's pricing program. We should implement that. But oh, we will also go ahead and implement our cost cut programs in the stores, now the stores will be poorly stocked, look lousy, no more employee uniforms, lousy produce, messy shelves, etc.
Also I am finding Kroger pricing is RAPIDLY increasing. Key items like bread, milk, eggs, they used to be competitive with Wal Mart and WinCo. Not anymore.