Totally agree with the Ralphs "fresh" categories. In fact they have had some expiration issues that was covered in the press.ClownLoach wrote: ↑February 29th, 2024, 4:56 pmAll exceptionally valid points.pseudo3d wrote: ↑February 29th, 2024, 12:04 pm https://www.supermarketnews.com/retail- ... omplicated
This article has another look by an analyst. A few things to note:
- Has Kroger revealed a counter-claim? I can't see anything where Rodney has vowed to continue to fight.
- Nobody has talked about how the grocery quality is affected. A lot of the perishable quality at Albertsons/Safeway has slipped, not just in the past few years but also since the original Albertsons/Safeway merger. A Kroger merger would mean that it would go even further (even worse for the divested stores).
- If C&S was what they really wanted, the extra ~200 stores they had as a contingency plan (C&S would get first dibs) would be officially revealed. It reveals someone's got cold feet about that. Either Kroger/Albertsons isn't selling or C&S isn't buying.
- The article mentions "Specifically, [FTC] does not like the divestiture involving C&S Wholesale Grocers because C&S is not well capitalized" which means C&S can't afford the extra ~200 stores without risking serious financial danger.
- There's a point in there that even divested stores really can't go to other competitors, which is true. In every single grocery market, there has already been mass consolidation. You can't divide stores between 3-4 other competitors anymore.
Last night I was at an Albertsons and the cashier and bagger were talking through the transaction, complaining about current working conditions. It sounds like Albertsons, despite being union here, is adopting some of the worst recommendations that Apollo brings to their subsidiaries. They are now giving part time employees 3 hour shifts... Just a few hours to work prime time grocery business in the late afternoon. Apollo forced these money saving scheduling practices on other retailers they've acquired or invested in previously (as seen on numerous Reddit and other employee groups). I cannot believe the unions are allowing work shifts that are less than 4 hours. I think this further validates that Apollo is now involved directly in managing Albertsons and will be employing more of their "extracting value" moves in an effort to improve earnings and test to see if their practices work. If so I suspect they will acquire all the remaining shares they don't own and take it private, ending this Kroger deal.
It is my understanding that you do have to file a counter-claim and sue the FTC and Justice Dept., not just file an appeal to overturn these kinds of actions. If Kroger was indeed serious about fighting this to the bitter end then they would have already had their case filed as all that would require editing would be the first page. The rest would be their early arguments as to why they should be allowed to merge, which we have clearly seen before. So I do think they're stuck because they can't divest the stores to reliable buyers due to the excessive consolidation of the industry. C&S blabbing made themselves into a giant question mark and as such their credibility is shot, regardless of their balance sheet strengths or weaknesses.
As far as quality of perishables goes, I have found the opposite locally. Ralphs quality has plummeted in meats, produce, deli and bakery. Albertsons is absolutely better all around in these categories, except for the fact that their prices on meats are outrageously high and they don't offer Boars Head Brand (except at Pavilions). Ralphs is like grocery outlet, overly ripe fruits that are going to rot in a couple of days, bad looking greens, and bagged salads and such that are clearly not handled properly because they are going bad in the bag before the sell through date. I have to get produce at Albertsons, Sprouts or Stater Bros if I expect it to last any reasonable amount of time. I do not believe Ralphs is cutting meats in store either, they seem to have the same kind of shelf ready packaging as Walmart where it looks like a local shrink wrapper machine sealed and labeled it but it's really coming out of a box. Many of the meats are poorly trimmed and impossibly uniform indicating robotic cutting. They also seem to be using data mining technologies to reduce shrink by having very little stock available, sometimes just two or three packages of a common cut like New York or Ribeye and cases that are all a single layer to improve date rotation at the expense of selection. The quality of all perishables at Ralphs is bad, bad, bad and getting worse.
The Ralphs Fresh Fare in West Hollywood was caught selling frozen pizza that was 3 years old.