PORTLAND, Ore. — Over a hundred Safeway, Albertsons, QFC and Haggen stores across Oregon and Washington could be sold off to another supermarket chain, C&S Wholesale Grocers, under the pending merger between supermarket chains Kroger and Albertsons.
A list of locations set to be divested was released Tuesday, including 579 stores nationwide and 186 in Oregon and Washington. Kroger and Albertsons originally announced a plan to sell 413 stores in September 2023, seeking to clear a path with antitrust regulators, but later pledged to expand the list.
Reactions from employees and unions have been mixed. Local branch 555 of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), covering Oregon, southwest Washington and Idaho, supports the merger and the sale.
RELATED: Dozens of Safeway, Albertsons, QFC stores in Oregon would be sold off under Kroger-Albertsons merger
Union representatives met with C&S, the buyer, earlier this year and later said in a February statement, “we were pleased to find not only that they understood and liked the grocery business, but also recognized the importance of quality employees to their ongoing success.”
“The only really detail that’s changed between now and then is the number of stores has increased and we actually have a list and know which stores they are,” Miles Eshaia, communication coordinator at UFCW 555, told KGW on Wednesday. “We came out and we were in support of it and that position hasn’t changed.”
That support is in stark contrast to UFCW 3000 in Washington, who released a statement yesterday saying in part, “we know it would harm workers, it would harm shoppers, it would harm suppliers and communities.”
But the store sale is not final. The deal hinges on an antitrust lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission in February challenging the acquisition.
FTC said in a press release, “the proposed deal will eliminate fierce competition between Kroger and Albertsons, leading to higher prices for groceries and other essential household items for millions of Americans.”
The case is set to be heard starting Aug. 26 in federal court in Oregon. U.S. District Judge Adrienne UFCW 555 Nelson, a former Oregon Supreme Court justice appointed to the federal bench in 2023 by President Joe Biden, will decide whether to grant the FTC’s request to stop the merger.
“When you bring two behemoths like that together, there are going to be antitrust concerns,” said Suzanne Stevens, editor of the Portland Business Journal, a newspaper following the merger and the ensuing lawsuit. “So, if there's concern that it will hurt me, you, others who shop at grocery chains in the form of higher prices, then the FTC is going to get involved. And that means a lot of intense scrutiny over a deal and that’s what we're seeing play out right now.”
Kroger stated in April that it will ensure “no stores will close as a result of the merger and that all frontline associates will remain employed.”
C&S wholesale grocers, the buyer of the pending store sale, told KGW that they plan to keep the locations open, though it’s unclear if the items they carry or overall branding will change.
“I don’t actually know if the names on the doors will change, but you know the people inside are still going to be there and that’s who we really care about,” Eshaia said.