By Jaime Stathis
Source: Reader’s Digest
In a $24.6 billion deal, Kroger is acquiring Albertsons to create a supermarket powerhouse that will rival Walmart. Together, Kroger and Albertsons employ 700,000 people in 5,000 stores serving 85 million households, and have a combined annual revenue of $210 billion, only $10 billion less than Walmart. The deal is expected to go through in early 2024, yet some experts think it could be stalled by regulatory scrutiny.
How many stores could be affected?
“In order to clear antitrust hurdles, Kroger and Albertsons would likely have to divest up to 600 stores which means potentially tens of thousands of jobs lost,” explains Ayesha Whyte, an employment attorney and Chief People Officer at Dixon Whyte, LLC, a human resources and legal services firm. “The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) is pushing back hard on the deal,” Whyte says, “Including threatening potential strikes as both Kroger and Albertsons have a heavily unionized workforce.”
