“This merger is a cut-and-dry case of monopoly power, and enforcers should block it.”īusiness Column: Hospital mergers reduce patient care and drive up prices, new data show “With 60% of grocery sales concentrated among just five national chains, a Kroger-Albertsons deal would squeeze consumers already struggling to afford food, crush workers fighting for fair wages, and destroy independent, community stores,” Miller says. “ There is no reason to allow two of the biggest supermarket chains in the country to merge - especially with food prices already soaring,” says Sarah Miller, executive director of the American Economic Liberties Project. That’s a big marketing landscape to come under a single owner. Albertsons owns Safeway, Vons, Pavilions and 12 other brands. Kroger is the owner of Food4Less and Ralphs in California, as well as 26 other store brands. But the Albertsons-Kroger deal will be a major challenge.
It’s encouraging that the current FTC and its chair, Lina Khan, are talking and acting much tougher than previous iterations of the agency. But that didn’t stop CVS and Aetna from making the same claim when they announced their merger in 2017.Ī 2016 study by USC found that the domination of California’s hospital market by two big systems that grew by acquisition, Sutter Health and Dignity Health, not only drove up prices everywhere their institutions were located but also allowed even nonaffiliated hospitals to charge more.Īll these deals have been more or less waved through by the Federal Trade Commission. We’re still waiting for the technological benefits of the WellPoint-Anthem deal to appear after 18 years.
#ALBERTSONS MONOPOLY PLUS#
Never mind that WellPoint Chairman and Chief Executive Leonard Schaeffer was in line to pocket $37 million from the deal plus a lump-sum payout of $45 million in accrued pension rights.
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