A judge ordered supermarket giants Kroger and Albertsons to temporarily halt their plan to merge until a lawsuit filed in Colorado to block the merger is finished.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser argues the $25 billion merger will quash competition and raise prices for shoppers. The Colorado trial is slated to start Sept. 30.
“My office looks forward to making the case that this merger will eliminate competition and impact food prices, jobs and consumer choice,” Weiser said in a statement.
Separate from Colorado’s lawsuit, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and nine other states are suing to block the deal on grounds that it violates antitrust law. A hearing for that trial is set for Aug. 26.
Kroger operates 148 King Soopers and City Market stores in Colorado and is the largest chain in the state. Albertsons has 105 Safeway and Albertsons stores and is the third largest grocery seller in the state.
Kroger and Albertsons have agreed to sell 579 stores nationwide to C&S Wholesale Grocers, a New Hampshire-based company, to address concerns the combined company will create a monopoly in areas with significant overlap. The divestiture plan covers 91 stores in Colorado including most of the state’s Safeway and Albertsons locations, as well as two distribution centers and a dairy farm.
Kroger and Albertsons said selling locations to C&S, which operates Piggly Wiggly in the Southeast and Midwest, meets their promise of having no store closures or layoffs. C&S has said no stores will close as a result of the merger, and that all frontline associates will keep their jobs.
The United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 7, which represents 23,000 members in the grocery, meat packing, food processing and related industries in Colorado and Wyoming, said in a statement it’s pleased with the Colorado court’s decision.
