Albertsons and Safeway never should have been allowed to merge in the first place. There was a lot of location swapping like this, involving some locations going to the Haggen company, in the name of the competition.
Haggen was a small family owned chain from up north, a bit more expensive and niche than the Safeways had been. The kids of the early owners wanted out and sold to a capital firm. Two years after picking up the Safeway stores, the Haggen chain went bankrupt and Albertsons 'agreed' to acquire them, as if it was a favor. More like they engineered a fire sale and someone made out big. It's ridiculous what is being allowed to happen.
If Safeway and Kroger brands merge, I would have 6 Kroger stores of various brands within 5 minutes of me. The only non Kroger choice would be 1 Trader Joe's and a co-op. Especially since the Sprouts built a custom building, were there for 2 years, and left it vacant. What a waste of space they all are. I refuse to shop at any Kroger or Safeway since the merger was announced, and I won't shop at these spin off stores either. But I'm lucky I can make that choice. People who are forced to shop there now will only see price increases and less choice of brands.
All the Fred Meyer and QFC stores have been SAD to shop at since the pandemic when I did venture in. Terrible layout, lame inventory and unhappy staff.
Screw them. Bust up these ridiculous monopolies.
