Our neighborhood grocery stores have always been a critical part of our communities. For generations, these stores have been the places where most people around the Sound buy their food and household supplies and often get their prescriptions filled each week.
But now, these neighborhood anchors are under serious threat by the propose Kroger and Albertsons mega merger. We’re part of a national coalition called “Stop the Merger,” which has a mission to prevent this merger, and we’re here to tell you why.
Beyond our everyday needs, grocery stores are also a place of employment, directly or indirectly, for so many — from the workers in the stores themselves, to all the hands in between farm, sea and store that help process, package, transport or prepare food or otherwise have a role in the food system. That food system is a complex web of state, regional, national and increasingly global food production driven by corporate greed and a ferocious appetite to maximize corporate profit.
Many challenges and problems with that food system need to be addressed, but today we are talking about just one of the many complex aspects: defeating this proposed megagrocery store merger. Frankly, if we don’t defeat it, we will inevitably have a much harder time changing that food system into one that is more focused on caring, sustainability, local consumers and worker power.
Today’s reality is one where millions of people shop and tens of thousands of union grocery store employees work at the hundreds of either Kroger, Fred Meyer and QFC or Albertsons, Safeway and Haggen stores located in Washington. These big national chains own most of the grocery stores in many regions around the country, including here in the Sound.
We want you to understand why the two of us, as a grocery store worker and as a leader in the global food justice movement, are so opposed to this proposed merger.
The bottom line is this: Our nation’s food system is already far too consolidated in the hands of too few. Between the massive concentrations in production dwindling down to fewer and fewer companies that now control everything from seed to meat, to increased grocery store consolidations over the last three decades, most communities already depend on food controlled by the same greedy companies.
That being said, all hope isn’t lost. We still have a number of small, independent, union grocery stores in our region, along with Kroger and Alberstons being the two national chains. And while there are certainly still problems with too-high prices and too-low wages, this diverse makeup of stores has helped create a far better outcome than we would see if Kroger and Albertsons were allowed to merge into a single company. If the merger is allowed to proceed, the newly merged company would become a behemoth of nearly 4,500 stores and over 750,000 workers across the nation.
The tens of thousands of union grocery store workers in the Sound area have far better job security, health care coverage and other benefits than not-yet-union grocery workers. If a Kroger or Albertsons worker feels their experience and skill are not being respected at one employer, they can choose to take that skill and experience to the other company’s nearby store in the same industry to seek something better. And if these grocery chains try to undermine the standards for wages and benefits for thousands of grocery employees in the Sound — standards that have been negotiated through collective bargaining with our union — then we have the ability to strike that company and direct consumers to their primary competitor.
But if these two primary competitors become one, then we lose that ability to defend the standards we fought so hard to win. This is a key factor for workers, consumers and the federal regulators to understand, because much like healthy competition should reduce food prices and increase consumer choice, competition in the labor market allows workers to have a better chance to improve standard of living.
What’s really driving these companies to merge? One of the oldest motivations in the human condition: greed.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when so many restaurants and farmer’s markets closed, grocery stores were often the only place where we could get our food and many other basic necessities. Kroger and Albertsons made billions in extra profit, and yet these companies still chose to raise food prices faster than inflation, making even more profit.
In early 2023, Albertsons sent off a
$4 billion special payment to wealthy shareholders instead of deciding to lower prices and invest in higher wages. As consumers, we’ve seen our grocery bills increasing since the pandemic, largely as a result of price gouging by large corporations. This merger would only further reduce our choices in where we shop, eroding our power to take our money elsewhere.
Kroger and Albertsons cooked up a deal in their corporate boardrooms with the sole objective of increasing their profits with a massive merger that would drive up prices, close stores and reduce consumer choice. This merger would harm union grocery store workers by removing their choice of employer and taking away the power to negotiate for better wages and working conditions.
Sadly though, this merger story is nothing new. There are plenty of examples of mergers gone bad, including the 2015 Albertsons/Safeway merger resulting in the bankruptcy of Haggen that led to the closing of over a hundred stores and the loss of over a thousand jobs across the western part of the U.S.
The largely globalized food system has concentrated production in the hands of increasingly fewer companies and driven away local production and diversity of food choices, all while wreaking havoc on local economies from here in the U.S. to South America, Africa and Asia.
Instead of consolidating even more power by allowing two of our nation’s largest food retailers to merge into one even bigger giant, we should be going the other way. Defeating this proposed merger is a critical step for us to take if we are to ever hope for better and more localized food systems.
The good news is that these companies don’t just get to merge however they please. There are still some protective regulations left on the state and federal levels. The biggest step is these companies have asked for the approval of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and this federal agency has been diligently working to review the proposed merger.
For over a year now, our national coalition has fought the proposed merger by taking action — from leaflets at stores to meeting with regulators across the country and in D.C. to airing our concerns in hundreds of news stories to meeting with tens of thousands of workers. While the future is still not certain, our national coalition feels it’s likely the FTC will seek to stop the transaction by filing a preliminary injunction in federal court, with the case then proceeding to an administrative trial. We feel this action would be most protective for consumers and workers alike.
If you would like to keep up-to-date and get involved, please visit our website and join us at NoGroceryMerger.com.
Heather Day is a co-founder and current director of the Community Alliance for Global Justice.
Wallace Lourenco Vlaskamp is a UFCW 3000 grocery store worker at the Ballard Fred Meyer store.
Read more of the Jan. 3–9, 2024 issue.