On Monday, Sept. 16, the same day a Washington state antitrust lawsuit against the merger of two national grocery chains began, the Bellingham City Council took an official position opposing the proposed merger of Albertsons and Kroger.
The council cited concerns about the possibility of reduced competition, price hikes, reduced food access and job losses for unionized workers.
At the time of the merger announcement in 2022, Kroger and Albertsons combined operated nearly 5,000 stores across the country, including those under the Haggen, Albertsons, Safeway, Fred Meyer and QFC names.
Kroger and Albertsons say they must merge to compete with major companies like Walmart and Amazon. In response to state and federal antitrust concerns, the two companies released a divestiture plan of all the stores they intended to sell off to New Hampshire-based C&S Wholesale Grocers if the proposed merger goes through.
That list included all four of the Haggen locations in Bellingham and the Safeway on Sunset. Other stores that will be divested in Whatcom and Skagit counties include the Haggen locations in Ferndale and Burlington and the Safeway in Mount Vernon. Haggen was founded in Bellingham in 1933, but filed for bankruptcy after a failed 2014 expansion bid and was purchased by Albertsons in 2016.
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a lawsuit in January to block the acquisition of Albertsons by Kroger. The complaint says the two companies have more than 300 locations in the state and account for more than half of its grocery sales. United Food & Commercial Workers, Local 3000, which represents Kroger and Albertsons employees in Washington, northeast Oregon and northern Idaho, endorsed the lawsuit, the Seattle Times reported. The Federal Trade Commission followed suit in February.
Bellingham City Council member Jace Cotton brought forward the resolution on Sept. 16 to formally oppose the merger because he believes it poses a severe risk to customers and employees of the community’s grocery stores.
“I don’t think it’s a leap to say that any merger of this size would have negative consequences, including those to consumers and workers,” Cotton said during the Monday afternoon meeting.
The resolution points out the city “experienced negative impacts from the 2015 merger of Safeway and Albertsons,” impacts that included the Haggen bankruptcy and the closure of the Albertsons store in Birchwood in 2016. That closure had the long-term effect of reducing access to fresh food for residents of the neighborhood.
The resolution, unanimously approved by the city council on Monday night, was transmitted to the Federal Trade Commission, the state attorney general and the CEOs of Kroger and Albertsons. A few other Washington cities, like Kenmore in King County, have taken the same action.
Julia Tellman writes about civic issues and anything else that happens to cross her desk; contact her at juliatellman@cascadiadaily.com.
