#albertsons

The Albertson's sign was taken down. I saw the ghost letters, shining like something out of Bradbury, on the brick siding as we passed it on the interstate.

I remember the scent of fresh-baked cookies -- frosted sugar, peanut butter, chocolate chip -- on the day it opened. Twenty-five years ago.

It made me lonely for the blazing azaleas and clouds of oak pollen of college. Of the book- filled apartment, the tacked up posters for Star Wars: Episode One, and Ocarina of Time.

For the little fried fast food corn fritters that we used to eat by the handful. For our best friend living next door. For the twenty jars of salsa you found at the other Albertson's for a dollar each. For the nights that shimmered in a glaze of dew and promise. For a place gone. A time passed.

Haven't seen a post for this one but there's major listeria outbreak w/ some frozen pasta that has killed a few people.

Here's another one from about a week ago (sep 29, 2025) about pasta at Albertsons delis also being contaminated with listeria too

Pictured above is the companies kroger owns, and the companies albertsons owns. All the companies they would own if the merger didn't fail.

What's happened is when you have concentrated power over any market, those who have the power get to dictate wages to the workers and also what they pay to their suppliers. And in the food system, that would be farmers, ranchers. And if you look at what's happened in the last 40 years in the United States, we've had remarkably stagnant wages for ordinary Americans and we've had a huge decline in the number of farmers and ranchers and the middleman is able to take the profit.

And that's why you need competitive markets. That's what capitalism is supposed to be about, but what we really have is a form of corporate socialism. And once four companies control about 40% of a market, you don't really have competition anymore because they're able to signal to one another price increases.

They're able to signal to one another how much they want to pay suppliers. A good analogy would be, let's say you want to sell your house. If you're going to sell your house, you want 50 to 60 people really eager to buy it. But if there's only one or maybe two, you're much more likely to get a lower price. And that's what America's farmers and ranchers have now found. And it's devastated the countryside as a result.

But when we go to the grocery store, we go right down any major city street and we see several grocery stores, we actually think we're looking at different stores with different options. And that’s really not true.

You know, when you go to the supermarket, there are thousands of products and you think they're independent companies, but they're made by a handful of companies. The Biden administration right now is trying to block the merger of Kroger's and Albertsons.

These are the two biggest supermarket chains, but you wouldn't necessarily realize it because they operate under dozens of different names. So I'm just going to give you some of Kroger's, for example, supermarkets. Ralph's, Dillon's, Smith's, King's Super's, Fry's, QFC, City Market, Owens, JC, Baker's, Harris Teeter, Pick and Save, Metro Market, Fred Meyer, and then Albertsons's, Safeway, Vaughan's, Shaw's, Tom Thumb, United Supermarkets, Pavilions, Cars, King Foods, on and on and on.

So you think you have a choice of dozens of different supermarkets, but it's only two. And if this merger is allowed to go through, it'll only be one.”

Reuters, via The Guardian:

A US judge blocked the pending $25bn merger of US grocery chains Kroger and Albertsons on Tuesday, siding with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in a win for the Biden administration. The FTC argued at a three-week trial in Portland, Oregon, that the merger would eliminate head-to-head competition between the top two traditional grocery chains, leading to higher prices for shoppers and reduced bargaining leverage for unionized workers. Kroger fought those claims, saying the deal would bring prices down, particularly at Albertsons stores, where it said prices are 10-12% higher than at Kroger stores. The merged company would fund price cuts through cost savings it expects from a larger operation, and a larger customer base to drive revenue for Kroger’s data consulting business, Kroger said.