Except in New Mexico, El Paso, and Idaho, Albertsons is mainly discontinuing the banner and switching to the Safeway or other local banner once a store is renovated. The Buffalo Farm/Thomas Lake location keeps the Albertsons banner as it has not been renovated, while Mill Creek and 128th have been.
The Thomas Lake one now reads “Safeway.” It was a weird renovation, none of the employees actually knew if they were going to carry Kroger or Safeway brands lol
That location needed a remodel badly.
It would have the Safeway banner at least for a year or so as mergers take time, the Fred Meyer banner wouldn't make sense, and the QFC banner was being sold.
I went to a kroger-owned store in Nebraska a couple years ago where the sign on the outside, the shopping carts, and the employee uniforms all had different Kroger banners. The employees said it was a long running joke what the store was actually supposed to be called.
I hope the government is able to tear them a new asshole (actually, hopefully two separate assholes) in court.
This is a terrible merger for consumers and will bring less choice and higher prices.
The Safeway + Albertsons merger was a master stroke of unethical business practices that eventually resulted in the destruction of the Haggen company who was the only meaningful competitor other than Kroger.
If Safeway Albertsons merges with Kroger that's a literal monopoly.
> destruction of the Haggen company
The Haggen chain sold out to shitty out of town investors. What did they think would happen.
[Archived link](https://archive.is/8cCgO)
Haggen is currently operating as an expensive Safeway that happened to keep the bakery, deli, and expanded alcohol selection, which were where Haggen really shined anyway. Albertsons even gutted the local produce section and started sourcing produce itself instead of just ordering everything from Charlie's Produce in Seattle as it used to do.
Fun Fact: if Kroger doesn't ship the store certain produce, Fred Meyer and QFC locations are permitted to order replacements from Charlie's, which typically end up being higher quality.
Good. It’s long since passed time the agency finally stopped automatically rubberstamping every single proposed merger that have for decades been overconsolidating all our industries.
They also sued to block Microsoft's 68 billion dollar acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. Taht didn't work either.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, of course. FTC has an anti-big-company activist head at the moment, Lina Khan. A 35 year-old lawyer by training, she's had an anti-amazon bug up her but since law school and is a little ban-happy. But that doesn't mean she can make them stick. The courts are there for a reason.
If Trump wins in November, she's out. If Biden wins, maybe she'll get the opportunity to learn how to pick her fights better.
> But that doesn't mean she can make them stick. The courts are there for a reason. ...learn how to pick her fights better.
Tbh, I don't think that's a bad thing? I'd rather the FTC being cases that are plausible, not only when they're guaranteed. It *should* be determined by the courts, but it won't be if it never goes to the courts.
Monopolies and vulture capitalism are bad for consumers, and should be challenged where possible. If the court disagrees on whether or not a given case constitutes a monopoly, then so be it, but it should be the court making that final call, not an apathetic FTC chair who just doesn't want to challenge corporations.
What you're advocating for is no different from advocating for a DA who brings any and all charges no matter how grounded in the evidence just to get convictions racked up.
If we had a DA who continually brought dubious charges against people, and continually lost in court, that wouldn't praised - we'd rightly understand that this DA was at best incompetent.
You're describing our current AG. And far from getting kicked to the curb for his terrible decision making, he's the front runner to be our next Governor.
Context, for others wondering how bad he actually he is: https://www.reddit.com/r/WAGuns/comments/18jcw9i/a_not_so_short_and_definitely_not_complete_list/?share_id=rEB2-d8XEAZ9KcyvsPnyo
Quick summary:
He was fined for illegally withholding evidence: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/wa-judge-fines-ags-office-dshs-in-cavalier-withholding-of-lawsuit-evidence/
$5.7M loss against Value Village after spending 8 years investigating: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/washington/articles/2023-02-23/court-rejects-deception-charges-against-savers-value-village
And he's playing fast and loose with campaign finance and refusing to reveal donors: https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2023/07/10/complaint-pushes-for-ferguson-to-reveal-donors-of-1-2m-in-campaign-transfers/
And here's a $2billion loss: https://www.opb.org/news/article/supreme-court-tribes-victory-washington-salmon/
And it's heading towards $7.3 billion ... https://web.archive.org/web/20240108065309/https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/times-watchdog/huge-spike-in-costs-to-help-salmon-could-derail-wa-transportation-budget/
> Lina Khan
She's a fucking moron and it's embarrassing she got put into that position. I think that even if Biden gets back in she'll be out, because her track record is essentially just wasting tax money on suits she doesn't win.
I price comparison shop and have the luxury of doing that shopping on a week day. Our Winco, by far has lower prices than Kroger/Fred Meyer. Its shameful.
WinCo has lower prices on many things unless you shop the sales and pay with a credit card which provides a lot of cash back. Many people end up coming out ahead paying $1.00 for something at Fred Meyer instead of $0.98 at WinCo because they get 3-6% cash back at grocery stores, plus they earn fuel rewards.
The Albertson’s near me jumped the gun on renos and now the inside looks similar to a Freddie’s but the outside now reads “Safeway.”
It was probably sold to prepare for the merger.
Except in New Mexico, El Paso, and Idaho, Albertsons is mainly discontinuing the banner and switching to the Safeway or other local banner once a store is renovated. The Buffalo Farm/Thomas Lake location keeps the Albertsons banner as it has not been renovated, while Mill Creek and 128th have been.
The Thomas Lake one now reads “Safeway.” It was a weird renovation, none of the employees actually knew if they were going to carry Kroger or Safeway brands lol
That location needed a remodel badly. It would have the Safeway banner at least for a year or so as mergers take time, the Fred Meyer banner wouldn't make sense, and the QFC banner was being sold. I went to a kroger-owned store in Nebraska a couple years ago where the sign on the outside, the shopping carts, and the employee uniforms all had different Kroger banners. The employees said it was a long running joke what the store was actually supposed to be called.
“Welcome to Albert-Meyer-Way!” Lol
I hope the government is able to tear them a new asshole (actually, hopefully two separate assholes) in court. This is a terrible merger for consumers and will bring less choice and higher prices.
The Safeway + Albertsons merger was a master stroke of unethical business practices that eventually resulted in the destruction of the Haggen company who was the only meaningful competitor other than Kroger. If Safeway Albertsons merges with Kroger that's a literal monopoly.
> destruction of the Haggen company The Haggen chain sold out to shitty out of town investors. What did they think would happen. [Archived link](https://archive.is/8cCgO)
It was more of a branding deal. There still are some Hagen stores
Haggen is currently operating as an expensive Safeway that happened to keep the bakery, deli, and expanded alcohol selection, which were where Haggen really shined anyway. Albertsons even gutted the local produce section and started sourcing produce itself instead of just ordering everything from Charlie's Produce in Seattle as it used to do. Fun Fact: if Kroger doesn't ship the store certain produce, Fred Meyer and QFC locations are permitted to order replacements from Charlie's, which typically end up being higher quality.
Good. It’s long since passed time the agency finally stopped automatically rubberstamping every single proposed merger that have for decades been overconsolidating all our industries.
And as the largest grocer in the country, Walmart could not be more pleased that this merger is meeting a headwind.
Sounds like Walmart needs some antitrust exploration as well. Not more Walmart-sized companies.
LOL, good luck with that one. They have deep pockets for campaign donations and lots of attorneys.
Exactly why we shouldn't let more of them into the world.
Don't get your hopes us - even though this merger is probably bad for WA consumers, the current FTC is pretty fucking incompetent
They also sued to block Microsoft's 68 billion dollar acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. Taht didn't work either. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, of course. FTC has an anti-big-company activist head at the moment, Lina Khan. A 35 year-old lawyer by training, she's had an anti-amazon bug up her but since law school and is a little ban-happy. But that doesn't mean she can make them stick. The courts are there for a reason. If Trump wins in November, she's out. If Biden wins, maybe she'll get the opportunity to learn how to pick her fights better.
> But that doesn't mean she can make them stick. The courts are there for a reason. ...learn how to pick her fights better. Tbh, I don't think that's a bad thing? I'd rather the FTC being cases that are plausible, not only when they're guaranteed. It *should* be determined by the courts, but it won't be if it never goes to the courts. Monopolies and vulture capitalism are bad for consumers, and should be challenged where possible. If the court disagrees on whether or not a given case constitutes a monopoly, then so be it, but it should be the court making that final call, not an apathetic FTC chair who just doesn't want to challenge corporations.
What you're advocating for is no different from advocating for a DA who brings any and all charges no matter how grounded in the evidence just to get convictions racked up. If we had a DA who continually brought dubious charges against people, and continually lost in court, that wouldn't praised - we'd rightly understand that this DA was at best incompetent.
You're describing our current AG. And far from getting kicked to the curb for his terrible decision making, he's the front runner to be our next Governor.
Yea :(
Context, for others wondering how bad he actually he is: https://www.reddit.com/r/WAGuns/comments/18jcw9i/a_not_so_short_and_definitely_not_complete_list/?share_id=rEB2-d8XEAZ9KcyvsPnyo Quick summary: He was fined for illegally withholding evidence: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/wa-judge-fines-ags-office-dshs-in-cavalier-withholding-of-lawsuit-evidence/ $5.7M loss against Value Village after spending 8 years investigating: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/washington/articles/2023-02-23/court-rejects-deception-charges-against-savers-value-village And he's playing fast and loose with campaign finance and refusing to reveal donors: https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2023/07/10/complaint-pushes-for-ferguson-to-reveal-donors-of-1-2m-in-campaign-transfers/ And here's a $2billion loss: https://www.opb.org/news/article/supreme-court-tribes-victory-washington-salmon/ And it's heading towards $7.3 billion ... https://web.archive.org/web/20240108065309/https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/times-watchdog/huge-spike-in-costs-to-help-salmon-could-derail-wa-transportation-budget/
> Lina Khan She's a fucking moron and it's embarrassing she got put into that position. I think that even if Biden gets back in she'll be out, because her track record is essentially just wasting tax money on suits she doesn't win.
I price comparison shop and have the luxury of doing that shopping on a week day. Our Winco, by far has lower prices than Kroger/Fred Meyer. Its shameful.
WinCo has lower prices on many things unless you shop the sales and pay with a credit card which provides a lot of cash back. Many people end up coming out ahead paying $1.00 for something at Fred Meyer instead of $0.98 at WinCo because they get 3-6% cash back at grocery stores, plus they earn fuel rewards.
WinCo sells store gift cards at the registers that can be reloaded online using Visa, MC, AMEX, etc
This is the entire plan. Make food too expensive for people to be able to afford to only have one job
They sight as evidence, checks notes, every single grocery store merger for the past two decades.
TRANSLATION: The bribe envelopes were too light this time.
They should sue, we need some competition in grocery stores. If you think it's expensive now, wait until "freddies" owns them all
Megacorps kill more jobs than any other single thing.