Not that long ago, I would have said to allow the free market to decide if a merger or acquisition was valuable for the consumer. However, in the era where massive multinational corporations, investment groups and financial institutions have now used corporatism to merge their interests with government, the massive multinationals need scrutiny.
Two major food retailers, Kroger and Albertsons, have announced their intent to merge into one massive company in a deal valued at $24.6 billion. The majority stakeholders in Kroger are institutional investors Vanguard ($3.72 billion/11.29%) and Blackrock ($3.02 billion/ 9.17%). The majority stakeholder in Albertsons is institutional investment group Cerberus ($3.90 billion/28.54%).
In the past few years, food has surfaced as a growing national security issue. Foreign companies and large multinationals continue to expand their control over U.S. farm production and export U.S. farm products (Big Ag). A major retail level move like the merger of Kroger and Albertsons creates a weaker competitive environment and gives a larger potential footprint to price control.
CBS – […] Together, the companies will have more than 710,000 workers and operate nearly 5,000 stores, along with roughly 4,000 pharmacies. Kroger, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, operates 2,800 stores in 35 states, including brands like Ralphs, Smith’s and Harris Teeter. Alberstons, based in Boise, Idaho, operates 2,220 stores in 34 states, including brands like Safeway, Jewel Osco and Shaw’s.
“Albertsons Cos. brings a complementary footprint and operates in several parts of the country with very few or no Kroger stores,” Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen, who will lead the expanded company, said in a statement.
Kroger will pay $34.10 for each share of Albertsons stock, a 19% premium from the closing price on Thursday. As part of the purchase, Albertsons will issue a cash dividend of up to $4 billion to its shareholders, which the companies said is expected to be about $6.85 per share. (read more)
Sometimes bigger is just bigger and more controlling, not better.
That said, with economic volitivity continuing to increase, the food sector is a safe harbor for massive investment shifts.
“used corporatism to merge their interests with government”
Corporatism, aka Fascism.
“Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.”
– Benito Mussolini
They will use their power over food just as they used their power over the railroads transporting fertilizer and goods, and the housing market. Where is the GOP? Cashing checks!
They’re busy convincing the voters to keep believing that Republicans are on their side… You just need to elect a certain “type” of them. (Again)
It’s a very successful process for them.
Not to mention how this corporatism and government haven taken care control our healthcare. We see what’s happening.
Corporate, govt controlled medicine
Begging for cooperation and prophylaxis, dying with out treatment of choice (IVM, IV C, etc).
Happened to 20s son of a friend
Notice that McCarthy’s new contract for America does not mention repealing ObamaCare. ObamaCare continues to raise prices on healthcare and deny access. But the GOPe is happy with their slice of the government pie. McCarthy needs to be replaced.
Ninety percent of the entire GOP needs to be replaced.
More like 99%!!
One complaint and you get “trespassed”.
Imagine walking (car? whats that, not green) an extra 10miles for groceries now.
Order via cell phone? you’ve been de-platformed for incorrect thinking.
Live free or Die at the individual level, takes on a new meaning in a malicious or even indifferent corporate monopoly world.
GOP GONE OUT PARTYING
Exactly!
“It’s almost like fascism isn’t exclusive to right wing ideologies like the left claims constantly. They constantly conflate fascism as being an ideology. It’s not. It’s a mechanism that can be utilized to force an ideology. Any ideology.” – Anon
They are using the disingenuous European political scale which puts two flavors of Socialism at the ends of the spectrum in order to drive minds to the Left to escape the stigma of the one they put on the right.
Ben you didn’t come out anon. HA The left in this administration are the fascists, wake up.
Same here. The de facto merger of big corporate and big government changes everything. Our liberty and our Bill of Rights rights trump free market oligarchies every time.
Sometimes smaller is better.
See a neurosurgeon, you are losing it with your paranoia.
Please prove your assumptions using the Bill of rights. Wake up people you are paying more and will continue to pay more as long as we have an administration of fools destroying the value of the dollar and I don’t just mean the end of this woeful one. Go Trump, good luck and God Bless.
Big money hedging their bets to food, why not? It’s vertical integration, seed, farm, processing, to table. corporate fascist.
We all need food: its an even ‘safer bet’, as an investment than Drug companies,..which have people similarly dependant on taking a pill every day, for the rest of their life,…
So of COARSE Blackrock/Vanguard have their claws in it.
Buy local, as much as you can, while you can.
Better yet, learn to grow your own…
Learning to do just that! I’m in Idaho – we have a local weekly, year round market that pulls in local farmers, ranchers and makers of all kinds. It’s called Reko. Each week you order direct from the farmer and pick it up at a set location on a set day. I can order meat, eggs, bread, produce, honey, soaps, etc. The money stays in my immediate community and supports local and small. Also- Idaho has Melaleuca. They have all kinds of products and, although their CEO supports our rhino Governor, the company values are Christian and conservative. They offer a wide array of products. Between these two options – I rarely have to go to the Albertsons down the road. Except maybe for toilet paper. Ha!
For medical – our family is moving toward functional medical providers and away from big clinic physicians tied to a major hospital chain.
Moving our money into local credit unions. Etc etc etc.
Check out Publicsq and MammothNation. Look into GloriFi instead of PayPal. Join ALIGN newsletter. The conservative economy is building. Support it when and where you can.
Every little bit helps. Do what you can.
But, but, there were a bunch of GOP AGs that sent a “very strongly” worded notice to BlackRock some time back, that alone should have put an end to BlackRock’s predatory maneuvering.
What went wrong ??? /s ( very thick /s )
Black Rock is being financed directly by the Fed is direct cash deposits for asset swaps…
That’s the new QE program in play… No Republican alive is going to touch that cash cow.
Nothing went wrong we have a U.S. Constitution.
How’s that working out for you?
The federal government officials are violating their oaths and ignoring the Constitution.
/S?
No, it is more than that. They are actually pulling state pension funds out of Blackrock. It is a slow process but it is happening in several places. Louisiana was one of the most recent and my state, Kentucky, has been doing so as well. When Blackrock indicated that their investments may not generate good returns because they were participating in resetting the financial system using ESG, some states began to act. Some of the state treasurers see it as their responsibility to get maximum returns for pension investments.
Shall we expect the only restaurants left soon will be Taco Bell?
Only if the taco shell is filled with “Impossible Meat” and fake cheese!
$5.oo Cricket tacos….with worm sprinkles extra $2.50.
Would you like a bill gates recycled urine drink with your order. Please drive around to the first window.
Vomit loading…….
A reference to Demolition Man?
Just wait until they start declaring m.d.k. in sufficiently woke cities.
Why yes it is, indeed.
Murder Death Kill = MDK (Great movie, “Demolition Man”)
Sans doubte!
Si.
Sorta like Ma Bell.
MMMMmmm! I love my food to be dispensed by caulk gun!
Its coming …
Worst song ever and beginning to sound very prophetic except at the rate we’re going it might be 2025 or 2035.
We have just very recently began seeing Kroger home delivery vans / trucks here in the metro Atlanta area. It is a new service for our area in Gwinnett county. I prefer Publix and Ingles myself. Maybe they plan to be the Amazon of groceries. Hmmm…
Same here in Oklahoma City, Kroger delivery trucks. I’ll continue to buy from a family-owned local grocery.
Yep, we have one family owned store and a Safeway, so not much choice. I’ve never been in the Safeway.
The scary part has been, even during the summer months, how quickly the road gets rolled up each evening. Never used to be that way. By road, I mean the U.S. highway that’s the main drag. The parking lots are empty by 8pm and it’s still light out.
I shudder to think what’s going to happen this winter.
We don’t have one of those here – we have Smith’s [Kroger], Albertson’s/Safeway and one Basha’s store and Super Walmart – Basha and Walmart are not convenient – Albertson’s is in middle of the town. Locals for years have been asking for a Trader Joes and or a Sprouts.
Trader Joe’s makes a snobbish assumption that if there aren’t a certain percentage of college educated in an area it’s not worth opening a store there. They aren’t the only ones, by the way.
Trader Joe’s is the US brand name for Aldi Nord, a major chain in Europe. Aldi (more utilitarian) stores are operated by Aldi Sud. Both have private label organic goods, they just target different customer wealth classes.
We shop at Aldi. I like it because they have quality products and the store is much easier to get through. We have a new one going in much closer to us. The Aldi Brothers started the chain in Germany as a discount grocery store. They also own Trader Joes.
I have to disagree. TJ is not snobbish in California. Walk in, and your greeted, cannot find what you want, and they are all over you offering help. Long lines and every worker in a TJ heads to open the cash registers.
Kroger (Ralphs), on the other hand, no helps in the isles to find items, no self check out at Ralphs everyone had a human ringing up the total at TJ, oh and if you need cash back, TJ does it with no surcharge. Ralphs charges an extra 50 cents for cash back.
And it reflects in TJ’s sales. My TJ does $100,000 in sales a day, whereas Ralphs located in the same block is lucky to break $35,000 per day in a store 4 times larger.
Finally, they pay the same as union workers in Ralphs with no union….
How does one do any better?
Amazon is building a grocery Super Store at the bottom of my street!
Corporatism is the new age verbiage for Fascism just as globalism is the verbiage for communism
Both of which are the mainstays of this administration!
Hmm.
Seems that fewer entities in control of distribution can bias the availability of perishables by directive. Normally, competition/price drive distribution. When directives can be made, price becomes a secondary concern. That is, for other than profit reasons (I.e., in the execution of less efficient decisions), companies can now throttle necessities from “problem areas”. A problem area may in the future be a political undesirable. Twitter can lock out subscribers. YouTube can demonetize subscribers. Soon, food stores can embargo “problem areas”.
Get your seeds and fruit plants. If you factor in an orange is now $1, and an orange tree ready to fruit is $70. You get your money back in the first year.
I’d rather plant pennies and get dollars off a money tree.
That’s fine if you live in an area where oranges can be grown. Most of us dont. Here in SoCal (back before the greedy developers plowed them all up, that is) even with the relative mild winters we have outdoor heaters are often required to protect the crop.
We have to occasionally keep our citrus warm here in Florida. The developers want to plow them under here as well and have us rely on hot garbage Brazilian oranges. Nothing beats Florida orange juice.
It is possible to beat that their game.
While I appreciate not everyone has several grocery stores to chose from.
Those that do can buy strategically and buy less and get healthier ( North Americans are as a rule obese)
Stores near us all price match…
Make it a hobby, it can be a very profitable one.
As kids the only processed foods we at were “ Corn Flakes” as a treat.
Our Scots grandma who raised us had two pints of milk delivered to our door everyday.
She had milk in her tea a beverage she drank at least 8 cups a day.
Me and my two brothers rationed the rest.
Cheers!
We have gone from three meals a day to one. Try not to purchase anything but in a box, jarred or naturally wrapped.
My guess is you are fitter and more alert.
Cheers!
Hubs and I have gone from bacon, fried eggs, and hash browns (home made, of course) to just 2 boiled eggs, toast and coffee on most days. Once in awhile I’ll make an omelet. For lunch we pick and graze, unless I make a half of a pizza for us to split. Dinner is usually a small serving of protein and one vegetable side dish. I’m really looking forward to the cooler nights and those bowls of beans or homemade soups. As we’ve gotten older our appetites have shrunk considerably.
I’m 30 and fairly active, so to me your diet now sounds like a speedy death!
My wife is constantly shocked by how much I need to eat though. I tell her, it’s why men SHOULD earn more than women. And that usually derails whatever we’re talking about, just like it has now.
I don’t think my appetite will ever shrink that much unless I never leave bed. Very healthy and cost effective though, I applaud you and your husband.
Nice, succinct post.
Can we expect the same for other non-cyclicals?
This is the first I heard that Harris Teeter is owned by Kroger. Why don’t we ever have those good Kroger sales there, I wonder. Of course, I’ve only been in them once since they are expensive and I currently have 10 brick and mortar options, 12 if you go 20 miles out, plus a year round produce stand.
I don’t trust this merger anymore than I trust the government. Just another reason I’m going to the farmers market tomorrow for a pork butt from a local farmer plus some green beans to can and why I bought 2 more blueberry bushes, onion sets, and garlic this week. Shop local or from a regenerative farm online for things you can’t grow yourself.
Nice!!
Our older son just bought a whole side of beef and had it butchered.
Our freezers are full of that, and Halibut, Sockeye and spotted Pacific prawns courtesy of a seafaring nephew.
We are in a position where we can gift some of the high quality seafood to kindly neighbours.
Amazing thing is one time we “ passed on” a little seafood, the next week a Punjabi friend gave us a 30lb basket of fresh Blueberries from his dads farm.
“What goes around”
We CTH enthusiasts are way ahead of the curve.
Cheers!
I’m trying to figure out where I can put a freezer and justify the cost since it’s just me here. I do plan to pressure can some of the chicken I bought from Seven Sons last month as well as make and can applesauce when our high temp goes down into the 60ies for a couple days next week, making it a nice change from our current 80ies.
As a single person a freezer is likely not cost effective.
Your canning sounds like the way to go..
Cheers and all the best!
Yep, I’ve found shelf-stable works best for me. I don’t even have a full size refer, just one bar refer and the beverage reefer out of my old shop. They take pennies to run and have plenty of space for one.
We did all the canning, smoking, sulfuring when I was young and there was a family to feed. Being old and not eating much, it’s pretty easy now. Closest corporate store is at least 20 miles away, a Safeway, and I don’t think there’s a Kroger or Albertsons anywhere in driving range.
Great Stuff!!
The different perspectives from around the U.S.A. and elsewhere is much appreciated.
Cheers!
We just bought a 7 cu ft upright from Sams for $300 + tax. Skinny enough to fit a tight space.
Many single people I know, male and female own freezers. They freeze just about everything and don’t need to shop weekly. They store made ahead meals,leftovers,cheese, milk, bread,frozen veges,soups,etc.
Get a freezer, It’s not an indulgence.
Standalone freezers are practically a necessity here in #49.
I have a packed freezer too and it is one of the ways were are preparing to survive what’s coming. Unfortunately we know the SOBs cut off the power and/or water if we get agitated over the any of their shenanigans or too independent to participate in their coming ESG.
Our 7 cu ft freezer takes about 300 watts of power to operate. Our refrigerator about 180.
I purchased 2 tabletop, 1000 watt generators that can be recharged via AC, automobile battery, or solar panel and purchased small solar panel set with cables. One genset for heat, one for keeping cold.
Each genset about $700 and the solar panel was around $200.
Also found propane tank powered heaters that just screw onto the tops of the tanks and each heat about 900 sq ft for our garage storage area.
Fresh Blueberries!
Lucky you.
It is nice that he gifted you!
Special story. Thanks for sharing!
I think Publix is more expensive than Harris Teeter..when back in SW PA we are pretty much stuck with Giant Eagle. The worst ever!!
Imho, the worst ever belongs to WalMart.
Down the street we have a Kroger, a Walmart and an Aldi. Drive a little farther and we have an Albertsons and an HEB. HEB gets most of my business, Aldi occasionally. Kroger and Walmart rarely get my business and Albertsons never.
I’ve got Aldi, Lidl, Publix, Food Lion, Harris Teeter, Piggly Wiggly, Earthfare, Walmart (both regular stores and neighborhood markets that are just groceries and pharmacies), Target, Sam’s Club, Costco, and BJ’s Wholesale. I need to go 20 miles for Trader Joe’s and Whole Paycheck. There’s also a year round produce stand where I’ll be buying North Carolina grown apples for applesauce since it’s too warm for them to grow here. Most of the stores have multiple locations, which is convenient when there are other errands to run. At least I have choices. Aldi is my main go to.
Try finding out where your farms are.
All multinational. Are there no small mom & pop grocery stores?
Yep. IGA also referred to as Town & Country (here in North Carolina) and it’s great! A franchised grocery store owned by a local family.
In our town, we have Ruler (a discount Kroger brand), Houchen’s, and Food Lion. Trader Joe is 100 miles. A trip to Aldi’s and Sam’s is a day trip and it will include a stop at Meijer. There is a lot of variety in groceries in small towns, but the price may be less competitive. That is why we like Ruler.
For those who don’t know, Kroger is a very “woke” corporation. As an example, they forced their workers to take the clot shot. I used to shop at Kroger, but now won’t step foot into their stores.
My Kroger (QFC) did not force the vax but if you got Covid they would not let you use sick time.
Correction. If you were not vaxed and got Covid you could not use sick time.
I shop all grocery stores, even the woke ones, but I only buy things on sale at half or less of the regular price or things that can be bought with reward points. I get my dairy perishables at my local grocery. My goal is to not buy anything that results in a nickel of profit for the store.
I am a gladiator in the arena of corporation grocery stores.
I stand corrected. Apparently, Kroger didn’t force their workers to take the shot, as they just did what Chooseamerica said below. I should not have relied on my memory, and should have checked my sources before I posted. I am sorry for my error!
Ingles is still reasonably close to the family roots and I don’t think owned by a mega corporation. Bobby Ingle only died about 10 years ago. I don’t follow it too much, but I think stull a good company. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Ingle’s is our favorite here at home, and wherever else we run across it when RV’ing!
Never heard of it.
It is a regional. Almost every region has a regional chain. Here it is Houchen’s.
If I thought that this merger might improve food quality and reduce store prices, I would be all for it. My idea is that it will be a way to keep prices high in areas where there is little competition from smaller grocery chains.
With Blackrock literally in the WH and super keen on ESG and buying up single homes and such, I have a bad feeling about it.
Since I spend almost as much money on prescriptions as food, I’m also worried about how this will affect pharmacy prices. (Note to well-meaning normies: I am slim and eat a super healthy diet and rarely drink, but there’s no lifestyle fix for my degenerative disease.)
Don’t you just hate health scolds? I know I do.
Have you looked into GoodRX? Even if you don’t have the app, ask the pharmacy to check if there are any coupons.
Also, pharmacies in Canada, I have on rx (blood thinner) that monthly in the US is ~$1500, through brick n mortar in Canada i pay $170 for 3 months (and that covers shipping).
We have found that the local pharmacy in our town that has been here for 100 years has better prices that either of the Wal’s or other major chains. They are also very busy and run huge volumes. Walgreen’s make a lot of its money from the convenience store stuff.
Interesting.
My nearest grocery stores are in a small town 50 miles away.
Albertsons on one side of the street and Smiths (Krogers) on the other side of the street. Both are major price gougers.
I suspect this will make it worse.
So they don’t ream me, I usually go to the next nearest stores (110 miles away) but I plan my trips and have major freezer storage so the gas expense doesn’t eat up the grocery savings.
Albertsons used to be called Luckys in California when I lived there and they were thieves then also.
You REALLY need to plan your shopping. Do you grow much of your own food?
I have a greenhouse but my tastes tend more towards Top Sirloins and Ribeyes with Salmon fillets as a side and I’ve never been able to find seedlings for those so I have to make the drive. 🙂
The bank is even further, 125 miles, but after living in California and commuting to San Francisco for 30 years, that’s the price I am willing to pay to be rid of that place (and the people that inhabit it).
Where in the law does it say that you have to be ethical. And, this is the point. Can you write enough laws to come up with a code of ethics? Answer: religion already does it.
Lucky was a decent market before Albertson’s swallowed it up.
Put simply, the current laws can be exploited by the unethical.
In Chicago Booth event, scholars discuss ‘legal but morally reprehensible’ market exploitation
If something is legal, is it also ethical? Many ask this question when they hear about corporations that find legal loopholes and tax havens.
The University of Chicago Booth School of Business explored this topic in the latest installment of its “A Meeting of the Minds” series, co-sponsored by the Institute on the Formation of Knowledge at UChicago. Hosting two panelists whose books delve into the questions of ethics and legality, the June 15 event—titled “Corporations, Secrecy, and Ethics”—examined offshore deals, money moving in secret, and legal systems built for corporate desires.
https://news.uchicago.edu/story/how-companies-can-be-legal-unethical
I want our seeds back. As much as the soil has been ruined, I have read that 2 inches of new topsoil can be accomplished in 1 year. i can also grow potatoes in pots, YouTube videos for everything!
This is what the war between “Ukraine” and Russia is all about.
Was just about to compare prices between Kroger’s and Gordon’s Food Service via their websites. But that’s no longer necessary.
The break and take. They break the market and take the smaller pieces. Then they do it again.
Before long, we’ll all be back to buying only from “the company store”
I suspect it’ll be closer to the State Store.
This is a piece of SHIT!!!! Kroger is advised to sweep up every other supplier. This really should be an anti-trust issue. Yet it won’t.
RICO – But it’s multinational too.
Who directed this?
Blackrock is in the WH, so they’re in on it one way or another.
God help us, Maquis!
Bet biden is getting a kickback from them too. He would take bribes from the devil. And don’t tell me he doesn’t know what he is doing either. One never forgets how to be a greedy gut. They’re gonna have a lot of money to put in his coffin because he thinks he can take it with him…..but Jill’s gonna get it! And I bet she cuts Hunter out too. LOL!
Huge companies gobbling up huge companies to form mega companies is bad for consumers, competition, wholesalers and on down the line. The only people who benefit is Wall Street. I shop an independent Mom and Pop grocery store. It has amazing variety and surprising produce and meats. I’m lucky to have access to it.
Albertsons merged with Vons a few years back Vons had absorbed Safeway in the 1990s. I have been observing the coalescence of all the major market chains.
Sundance, you are correct not to consider this part of a free market. Corporations and Chambers have formed mutually beneficial alliances with the government. They lobby congress to pass laws to destroy potential competitors.
The thin veneer of free market capitalism over our excessively regulated commerce is socialism, which is simply a euphemism for early stage communism.
And our hindsight government does nothing. There cannot be enough nooses.
Happily they are multi-use!
State Capitalism..
Had my first job at Albertson’s – bag and carry. The produce was always excellent (direct from the Mormon farms in Treasure Valley) and the cash register had a slot for silver dollars; paper money went under the till drawer! Yowza, I’m old.
In my area we’ve got Albertson’s, Safeway (Albertson’s), Fred Meyer (Kroger), and QFC (Kroger). Now all of them will likely have the same, and higher prices (right now the Krogers win handily). I’d say this brings them dangerous monopoly power.
Here in the Anchorage area, Fred Meyer and Carrs (Kroger and Albertsons) are the major players – with the only competition being a couple of stores each for Costco, WallyWorld, and a really limited local chain: Three Bears (which carries Kirkland Signature and the subbrand that Sam’s carried before they moved out of Alaska).
Funny story.. When one of the liberal idiots on the Anchorage Assemby heard about a proposed grocery store being developed in a part of town with no close-by grocery stores, he expressed his hope that “… a local store -LIKE CARRS – would move in.”
No one had the heart to tell him that Carrs was owned by one of the “bigs.”
The mergers of food stores has been going on for decades, leading to store closures and layoffs due to consolidations where the different brands were competing. After the merger the competition no longer exists. What used to be independent store chains become the same store using the different names. This misleads people into thinking they have many different choices, they actually do not. The prices and selections at the different store names is all the same.
Lack of competition leads to higher prices and less selections and in some cases lower quality. The American consumer loses big time.
Paranoia strikes deep, into your heart it will creep~Buffalo Springfield
Great band.
Isn’t Mitch McConnell’s wife on the board of Kroger? I smell corruption
Why yes she is. CCP is represented. https://ir.kroger.com/CorporateProfile/press-releases/press-release/2021/Kroger-Elects-Elaine-Chao-to-Board-of-Directors/default.aspx
BARGE-POCALYPSE unfolding as rivers dry up leaving farmers and coal producers with no transportation
FTA – Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, now there’s a “barge-pocalypse” unfolding that you might find rather disturbing.
This is a problem with massive global implications that very few people saw coming because barges don’t exactly attract a lot of attention.
But they are critical for efficient transportation of crops and coal, and when the barges stop running, the world is in serious trouble.
https://www.naturalnews.com/2022-10-14-barge-pocalypse-unfolding-as-rivers-dry-up.html
Wow, quite the article. We have “mini gods” in charge and we are living in their insane world. Dear Lord, save us from this evil that has literally taken over the world.
Not that long ago, I would have said to allow the free market to decide if a merger or acquisition was valuable for the consumer. However, in the era where massive multinational corporations, investment groups and financial institutions have now used corporatism to merge their interests with government, the massive multinationals need scrutiny.
I think that is more to this move than a safe harbor investment opportunity. The large Grocery store chains have all come under significant pressure from the big box stores like WalMart and Meijers. Heck, even Menards, a chain of the Lowes and Home Depot type, has gotten into grocery sales. And then there are the stores like COSCO and Sams Club. All have put a lot of pressure on the grocery store chains.
What the mom & pops could not do, various other types of investor owned chains are doing. Competing successfully with the big grocery store chains. Most of the smaller more regional grocery store chains have been gobbled up so now the big boys are starting to feed on each other.
BTW food transport, especially refrigerated and frozen foods transport, is also a hold position for trucking companies. The deliveries to their stores are done by their own drivers pulling their own trailers. But the deliveries to the warehouses are almost all bid on and done by common carriers. The exceptions being larger suppliers like Tyson and Jimmy Dean who deliver a lot of, but not all of the product they sell.
When economic times get tough people still gotta eat.
Personally, this truck driver is not wild about hauling groceries, and that is especially true for produce. Delivering to the majority, but not all, of the big warehouses means dealing with lumpers. Lumpers unload the trailers and then break the pallets down into the shipments that will be made to the individual stores. The trucker or his company, pays the lumper fee and back charges the shipper. In the case of seafood I have had to pay lumper fees to be loaded.
At the warehouses all incoming shipments are inspected by a company rep before the trucker is released. If your hauling tomatoes for example, the boxes will be of a type that is open so the inspector can check the product out. An inspector can reject all or any portion of the shipment and then it is up to the supplier to tell the trucker where to take the rejected product. With tomatoes the most frequent reason for rejection is “checkering”, or IOW product that is in various states of ripening.
All in all it can be one big time consuming pain in the ass.
and I bet lettuce is an even bigger headache. Hopefully you have enough business hauling other stuff so you can stay away from produce. My father owned a small truckline so I know what a problem it can be. Good luck!
I flatly do not like Smith’s [Kroger] – I shop almost exclusively with Albertson’s and get my gas points through them for Chevron fuel – will Kroger force us into their cheap gas instead?
Just like Walmart nearly destroyed small/medium sized competition, the food industry is following the same footpath.
When Albertson’s purchased Safeway the FEC made them sell off a lot of AZ stores – they sold our existing Albertson’s store and some small upstart chain from Washington State purchased it – that chain was very expensive and didn’t have particularly good produce – the locals refused to shop there and eventually they sold the store back to Albertson’s – which is about two miles from Safeway. So now, here we go – Safeway — a couple of miles is Albertson’s and then a few more miles down the same street is Smith’s. The only store of the three with decent parking is Safeway, parking is a nightmare at Albertson’s and Smith’s – especially during snowbird season and when they have street fares on the blvd all three stores are located on….. All three stores are always busy – if FEC makes them sell one I have no doubt the Albertson’s store will gom that will push everyone to the other two already very busy stores. I am also reminded a couple of years ago Albertson’s and Safeway picked up a huge # of the shoppers from Smith’s when Kroger implemented their stupid no credit cards only debit cards rule – I understand they finally changed that, but I have never been back to their store since.
If we don’t like what they’re doing we can speak with our wallets. Hannity is against the boycott but I say that’s all we’ve got.
Here in SoCal I remember when Albertson’s swallowed up Lucky Markets, and Kroger devoured Alpha Beta stores, which were two nice places to shop. They were always clean and well stocked. I hope they don’t mess with Stater Bros, because they’re a really nice chain of stores.
I was doing some research on Colorado yesterday and they are all about the Safeway and King Sooper’s merging in their area.
Kroger-Albertsons merger could mean ‘monopoly,’ experts warn
By Ashley Michels
13 Oct 2022
https://kdvr.com/news/local/kroger-albertsons-king-soopers-safeway-merger-shoppers
Parallel societies being formed. Many are learning to be self sufficient or have relationships with family farms. My husband and I are blessed to have family farms close by for nearly all our food. We know the families and the animals and how they live.
We have a farmers’ market nearby every Saturday. In the spring and summer, all the sellers are outside; in the winter, they move indoors. I can purchase grass fed meat and organic, pastured eggs, honey, etc. all year round. We are most grateful for this. Yes, it is a little more expensive, but at least I know the food I am eating is nutritious and of good quality.
We’re lucky here in St Louis. We have TWO local chains that are privately owned by the local families that started them, Schnucks and Dierbergs. Lots of high quality local produce. No outside investors.
I live in a small town on the border of a city.. We have two IGA’s in town that is it.
And they are usually more well stocked than the big store. But down the road if
I go to the city we have Stop n shop (which tends to be expensive) and
we had Shop Rite (which was cheaper) but they just closed down as the owner
of that one retired.. Waiting to see if another big name store moves in.
I don;t wish to go any further into the city than necessary so since I don;t
want to have to drive across the city to shop I have to deal with the one
large grocery store Stop and Shop right on the border with my small town.
I could drive to another town but that is wasting gas.
SO my options are IGA or Stop n Shop or Dollar General…
When you see the names Blackrock and Vanguard anywhere near a business deal it’s time to cancel it on its face.
We have Wal-Mart, Meijer and Kroger. They definitely are competing for business. But Kroger does have an edge by being in closer proximity to neighborhoods and selling primarily groceries. Everyone doe not want to walk 10 miles on a shopping trip because the store is so big and people still want to shop for their own groceries.
I lost my job in Accounting when our company merged with another. They formed 4 large accounting centers instead of hundreds of small ones It’s part of business and staying profitable.
The CEO of Kroger stated that the merger would lower prices for everyone. I want someone with the balls to ask him when has eliminating competition ever lowered prices of anything?
The real stakeholders are the people at the check out register, with their thinning wallets.
Sometimes it seems that with each new post, people come here to start bashing the Republicans. Do those sprinters ever start bashing the Democrats? Is this what I can expect from now on? Do we have a third political party secretly hidden away somewhere?
Start voting for the Republicans, especially the conservative maga ones or start dying. And pooh on the trolls that use this platform to divide people. You know who you are.
Blackrock’s, Larry (Rat) Fink models his strategies the same as the CCP he is enamored with.
Merge and then corrupt the board with a majority of fellow travelers to change the company mission and culture (corporate capture).
Like a government, the larger the company, the more control over and the fewer choices / liberty for the citizenry.
My retirement savings are managed by an investment manager. I asked him to move anything I have in Blackrock into other investments. He said he would and that he has been getting this request a lot. Sadly, some of it will go to Vanguard (for now), if we target all our wrath to Blackrock, we can make them feel it. The states are already doing some of this as well. They can do what they do because we give them our money to do it.
Investment institutions and banks only power is that they hold our assets.
We do not need lawyers or new laws to regain control – just stop banking and investing with criminals. Pretty simple.
While the thought is a noble one, it is not the Investment Fund Companies that drive the corporate trains. It is the financial version of wack a mole.
It is the actual majority owners of the stocks in the actual, physical corporations that drive the train.
Blackrock, Vanguard, Schwab, UBS, Fidelity, State Street, Morgan Stanley and the rest of the lesser 2+ Trillion Dollar asset management companies are just the bundlers and salesmen of the Physical Investment Bundles. The same Investment Bundles are present in all the asset the management companies. One would have to unravel the Investment Bundles present in ALL the major asset firms to ID the top puppet string pullers. The problem emerging for the string pullers today is that the actual pecking order has started to settle out and their faces have surfaced to the public…via the Davos Conclave as well as BIS and similar events and organizations.
If governments had a will and proper motivation to reel in the real financial puppet masters, it could be made to happen. The reason Governments have altered investment laws across the board in economic sectors is to allow more effective use of the like of Larry Fink as the front men for the real financial powers, the actual major Investor-Owners. With that legislation the poltical elitema ke allot of money … hence the 1,000+ x increase in the net worth of US Politicians and their families.
Larry Fink (Blackrock) happens to be the more successful front man in selling the Bundles to the most wealthy and representing them inside the control rooms of governments. Have no doubt there are others like Fink, from his rival fund management companies, who also have seats inside the offices of power or enough pull to command an audiences for their representatives. Fink just happens to currently be the top dog among Investment Managers.
Clause Schwab and Morgan Stanley are to BIG dogs out there. Schwab is a global power maker that favors population control. Just as Bill Gates does. They want to decide who lives and who doesn’t. Dangerous folks to be sure.
I was NOT referring to “Cluas Schwab” but the “Charles Schwab” investing firm that is the #3 or #4 firm globally based on assets under management.
Claus Schwab has no relationship to the Charles Schwab Company.
That being said, yes Claus is one of the big dog finical puppet masters from Europe.
Well, I think Blackrock made it by making ETFs widely available with different tracking indexes. For Vanguard, they made it by being about the lowest cost for retail investors in mutual funds. Compare to the other big dogs in mutual funds, Fidelity and T Rowe Price.
Owners of ETF or mutual fund shares have in theory voting rights over management, but I don’t think anyone buys a mutual fund to exercise control.
I did the same thing….got out of Blackrock. It took several times and several demands from me to completely accomplish this because the investment manager thinks he knows more than me (he probably does as I’m a novice at this). But I persevered and continued to demand.
Finally, he accomplished my request but made the comment, “I’ve had many investors demand the same. You all must be getting your information from the same places.” BWAHAHAHAHA! BTW, this guy is a flaming liberal. He could stand some education from Sundance!
The majority shareholder of Blackrock, is Vanguard. The majority shareholder of Vanguard, is Blackrock. See how they control the world? Watch
https://rumble.com/embed/vklfaf/?pub=4
Vanguard is owned by its funds, and its funds are owned by the shareholders in its ETF/mutual funds.
Who are the majority shareholders in those funds?
+1. Ours too even though I now know my investing skill at least matches his which a had previously proven. I abdicated to “professional advice” because of the time demands. Stupid move I made. Turns out he was all in on Bush (younguh) et. a l “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act” and Bernanke as a then Lehman employee though he apparently was “all good” with his surroundings until they too collap$ed. A “-R” normie who last Monday said “Trump is a jerk”, but on cross could not cite one (1) specific as to why. Back in May we moved completely out of Blackrock every-thing (IShare ETFs for us) which I’m ashmaed to say escaped me for too long. This guy balks at 7%-8% stops, my rejection of mutual funds, and tows the institutional lines: “… Market turns around after midterm” and on his dual 30″ screens accesses the best of Edward Jones “evidence” (aka propaganda) historical charts and stats as quantitative “evidence” which of course have ZERO application to this unprecedented point in history, let alone Globohomo realities. He believes Kevin McCarthy’s recent announced version of his “contract with America” as proof another McCarthy-McConnell legislature is proof and supported Cuck McConnell in a previous conversation. And proud of his Glock 9mm. But you see I’m sometimes fatally loyal in some situations. Last Monday I moved to stop the bleeding, some of it with CD’s yielding a “whopping” 4.05% and will go back to what I used to religiously do – WATCH LIKE A HAWK THE KEY INDICATORS. S&P AND DOW VOLUMES BUY AND SELL DAILY/WEEKLY CHARTS (IBD’s are good and quick). BIG VOLUME IS ALWAYS INSTITUTIONAL ACTIVITY (Fink, Dalio et al.) Watch them on the open and especially into the close… advice I learned years ago and stupidly strayed from. Lesson learned.
Between buying up food suppliers and buying up massive real estate, blackrock aka ccp will control every single one of us. Is controlling all the water supply next? Or how about all the clothing manufacturers?
Controlling the water is already here?
The Colorado River?
TVA?
California?
Has the EPA polluted a river this month? /s
They are already requesting meters on private wells.