WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) along with Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Reps. Summer Lee (D-PA) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to express their opposition to the proposed merger of major grocery store chains Kroger and Albertsons. The lawmakers explain that despite the companies’ recent proposal to divest 413 stores to C&S Wholesale Grocers (C&S), this merger would still harm consumers, workers, and the grocery industry as a whole. They urge the FTC to oppose the merger, regardless of the proposed divestiture. This letter comes as the FTC’s deadline to act on the merger approaches on December 15, and as shoppers look to save on holiday food prices. 

A Kroger-Albertsons merger would net the five largest food retail companies control of 55 percent of all grocery sales, and would result in a duopoly with Walmart, with the two corporations controlling more than 70 percent of the grocery market in over 160 cities across the country. As a result, the newly merged entity could use its dominant position to further control and ultimately raise consumer prices, while also reducing job competition, decreasing wages, and decreasing the bargaining power of organized labor. 

A massive grocery merger also increases the risk that firms will violate the Robinson-Patman Act, a longstanding but under-enforced law that prohibits sellers from engaging in price discrimination among different buyers. 

In September 2023, Kroger and Albertsons proposed a structural remedy in which 413 stores and other assets would be acquired by C&S Wholesale Grocers.

“As Members of Congress have previously raised, structural and behavioral remedies are difficult to administer and enforce and cease to be binding once the term of the agreement ends, and they often fail to maintain competitive conditions because, as stated previously, companies have an incentive to ensure that the businesses they spin off do not succeed. Furthermore, they encourage companies to ‘litigate the fix’ by proposing remedies during ongoing litigation in order to distract a judge’s focus from the original antitrust violations of the merger. But in addition to these general concerns, past experience with Albertsons’ structural remedies indicates that the new proposal will not cure the anticompetitive harms of the deal,” continued the lawmakers.

“This merger will harm consumers, workers, farmers, and other food suppliers across the country, and the proposed divestiture will not resolve the concerns. We ask that the FTC should use its authority under the Clayton Act, the Sherman Act, and the Federal Trade Commission Act to prevent the companies from merging,” concluded the lawmakers.

Since Kroger and Albertsons proposed the merger, Senator Booker has expressed concerns about the deal. One year ago, Senator Booker wrote a letter to the Kroger Company CEO Rodney McMullen and Albertsons Companies, Inc. CEO Vivek Sankaran pressing them on diversity and inclusion and urged them to take steps to increase their commitments to address racial and economic disparities as the companies seek to merge. In October 2022, Senators Booker and Klobuchar and Rep. Blumenthal urged the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate the proposed merger between Kroger and Albertsons, voicing concern about this transaction’s potential implications for consumers. In May 2022, Senators Booker, Tester, Merkley and Warren introduced the Food and Agribusiness Merger Moratorium and Antitrust Review Act of 2022, legislation that would place an immediate and indefinite moratorium on acquisitions and mergers in the food and agriculture sector.

To read the full letter, click here.