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A federal judge temporarily halts the proposed supermarket merger of Kroger and Albertsons

A federal judge has temporarily halted a proposed merger between supermarket giants Kroger and Albertsons, an action that could scuttle the deal.
Kroger Albertsons merger
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The proposed merger between supermarket giants Kroger and Albertsons floundered on Tuesday after judges overseeing two separate cases both halted the merger.

U.S. District Court Judge Adrienne Nelson issued a preliminary injunction blocking the merger Tuesday after holding a three-week hearing in Portland, Oregon.

Later Tuesday, Judge Marshall Ferguson in Seattle issued a permanent injunction barring the merger in Washington after concluding that it would lessen competition in the state.

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7, which represents 23,000 workers across Colorado and Wyoming, celebrated the decision Tuesday.

"We are ecstatic," said Kim Cordova, president of UFCW7.

Cordova called the potential merger devastating for workers and consumers.

"When Albertsons and Safeway merged in 2015, we lost 43 stores in this market, and it hurt workers. It hurt our retirees. There was less competition," she said.

Kishore Kulkarni, a distinguished professor of economics at the Metropolitan State University of Denver, doesn't expect a merger to affect supply if it eventually goes through. However, he said customers could see a difference in what they pay at the store.

"That doesn't really change our supply as much. What does change is probably the price control," Kulkarni said.

Denver7 has been following this story since the merger was first announced in October 2022. View a timeline of everything that's lead up to this trial, below.

Kroger and Albertsons in 2022 proposed what would be the largest grocery store merger in U.S. history. But the Federal Trade Commission sued earlier this year, asking Nelson to block the $24.6 billion deal until an in-house administrative judge at the FTC could consider the merger’s implications.

Nelson agreed to pause the merger.

“Any harms defendants experience as a result of the injunction do not overcome the strong public interest in the enforcement of antitrust law, especially given the difficulty in disentangling a premature merger,” she wrote in her opinion.

Federal regulators argue that combining the two chains would be bad for consumers and workers by eliminating competition. The companies say a merger would help them better compete with big retailers like Walmart, Costco and Amazon.

The case may now move to the FTC, although Kroger and Albertsons have asked a different federal judge to block the in-house proceedings. Colorado and Washington are also trying to halt the merger in ongoing state trials. The judge in Washington was expected to release his opinion later Tuesday.

The FTC argued that Kroger and Albertsons currently compete in 22 states, closely matching each other on price, quality, private label products and services like store pickup. A merger would eliminate that competition and raise prices for already struggling consumers, the government said. The FTC also said the merger would hurt workers since Kroger and Albertsons would no longer compete to hire them.

But Kroger and Albertsons argued their merger would preserve consumer choice by allowing them to better compete against its growing rivals. In its testimony, Albertsons warned Nelson that it might have to lay off workers, close stores and even exit some markets if the merger weren't allowed to proceed.

Under the merger agreement, Kroger and Albertsons would sell 579 stores in places where their locations overlap to C&S Wholesale Grocers, a New Hampshire-based supplier to independent supermarkets that also owns the Grand Union and Piggly Wiggly store brands.

The FTC argued that C&S is ill-prepared to take on the stores and may want the option to sell or close them. But Kroger and Albertsons said C&S has the experience and national scale to handle the divestiture.

Kroger, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, operates 2,800 stores in 35 states, including brands like Ralphs, Smith’s and Harris Teeter. Albertsons, based in Boise, Idaho, operates 2,273 stores in 34 states, including brands like Safeway, Jewel Osco and Shaw’s. Together, the companies employ around 710,000 people.

On Tuesday, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser released a statement praising the ruling.

Full statement below:

"I am pleased that a federal district court judge ruled that the corporate owners of King Soopers, Safeway and City Market must pause their $25 billion megamerger. Today’s ruling is a victory for consumers, workers, and farmers.


All along, we have made the case that the Kroger/Albertsons merger is illegal and bad for Colorado. It is bad for grocery shoppers who are already feeling pinched at the checkout counter. It’s bad for workers and their job security and benefits. And it’s bad for farmers and other suppliers because there would be fewer local food options available at the store.



Colorado has brought a separate case in state court to block this anticompetitive grocery merger and to challenge an illegal no-poach and no solicitation agreement between the two companies during the 2022 King Soopers strike. We wait for a ruling in our case, and we are optimistic that this illegal merger will be permanently blocked.”

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Denver7's Claire Lavezzorio contributed to this report.

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