A Grocery Store Merger Is Coming at a Really Bad Time

Rising temperatures unseen in decades are heating up Southern California. And so is the spirit of grocery store workers and customers who oppose the proposed Kroger and Albertsons mega-merger because it will result in neighborhood supermarkets disappearing, reduced access to affordable nutritious food, and the loss of thousands of jobs. And during this time of historic inflation and rising food prices, the $25 billion deal is coming at the worst moment of a convergence of bad moments.

On top of that, this past March, emergency allotments added to the accounts of participants in CalFresh (the federal SNAP or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) were terminated. The average household receiving CalFresh has lost $82 of monthly benefits to purchase food. One-person households with a senior or disabled occupant saw their monthly benefit drop from $281 to the state minimum of $23. Statewide, half a billion dollars per month will be lost by the lowest income and most vulnerable populations collectively. This situation has been described as the “CalFresh cliff” or “hunger cliff.” 

This comes at a time with high food inflation and expiring renter protections, and people’s ability to buy food will be further diminished by the proposed $24.6 billion merger of Kroger and Albertsons if the deal moves forward.  

Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen, who is compensated over 600 times what he pays his typical employee, assures us that prices won’t go up, stores won’t shut down and workers won’t get laid off but history shows us that mergers have devastating consequences. Stores don’t merge for the public good: someone has determined that a profit is to be made. Considerations of whether a store serves a community take second place to the overriding desire for more profit. In the long run, everyone who buys food will feel the pain of this mega deal. 

Redlining in the grocery industry is a fact. Kroger and Albertsons have already been closing stores in low income or minority areas. These stores are a lifeline to the local population. But Kroger and Albertsons don’t serve those areas with the same priority as they serve wealthier, whiter areas. The loss of stores forces local people to travel farther, spending more money on gas and public transportation and to pay higher prices for food. Those on the bus must make more frequent trips because they can’t carry as much.

Closing stores also means the loss of union jobs with high quality health care and higher wages in our most vulnerable communities. This affects all grocery store workers who will be paid less when one big company controls the labor market and the entire food chain. 

Kroger operates in two worlds, where the Food4Less workers make less and customers get less than their counterparts at Ralph’s. Why would we want Kroger to have more power to divide our communities into two different worlds based on the income and racial makeup of those neighborhoods?

Those who take offense at the suggestion of racism in the grocery industry only have to look back on the promises made after the 1992 civil unrest, when new supermarkets were promised in low income areas. Over time those areas have seen a net loss of stores, with a couple coming in and others moving out. Nothing has changed.

The bottom line is lost jobs and income, loss of local stores to meet the community’s needs, more frequent long distance trips to buy groceries, and higher priced food, with food assistance benefits having been reduced and of less value due to the pre-existing inflation.This merger will severely hurt our communities at the worst possible time.

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About the authors: Frank Tamborello is the Director of Hunger Action LA; Miesha Smith works at a Los Angeles Ralphs; Guadalupe Rodriguez works at Food4Less in the Eastside of Los Angeles; and Kathleen Scott works at a Los Angeles Albertsons.