Courtesy
This file photo shows a Smith’s grocery sign outside a store in the Las Vegas Valley.
Monday, Aug. 28, 2023 | 2 a.m.
Diane Irwin, a longtime grocery worker in Las Vegas, has seen it all before: store mergers, layoffs, cuts in work hours and benefits.
The store where she works underwent a number of name changes before it was acquired by Albertsons in 2014.
“People got hurt; a lot of people got put to part-time; a lot of people ended up leaving,” Irwin said.
Listening sessions on merger
11 a.m. Tuesday: Boulder City Council Chamber, 391 California Ave., Boulder City.
11 a.m. Thursday: Pahrump and Tonopah Board of County Commission Chambers, 2100 E. Walt Williams Dr., Pahrump. The meeting will also be conferenced to the Tonopah Justice Court, 101 Radar Road, Tonopah.
10 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 13: Henderson City Council Chambers, 240 S. Water St., Henderson.
1 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 13: North Las Vegas City Hall, 2250 Las Vegas Blvd. N., Suite 112, North Las Vegas.
So it’s no surprise she’s skeptical about the latest proposed merger of Kroger, which owns Smith’s supermarket stores in Southern Nevada, and Albertsons, which in addition to its namesake stores also own Vons and Safeway.
Irwin, a grocery worker for 38 years, said she’s seen hard-working, dedicated employees lose their medical insurance and their jobs as the result of such deals.
“It was just wrong,” she said Tuesday during a meeting at Las Vegas City Hall organized by state Attorney General Aaron Ford.
Ford is conducting listening sessions across Southern Nevada as he weighs legal intervention to stop the merger of two of the biggest grocery chains in the U.S. His counterparts in 14 other states are holding similar sessions.
Kroger announced plans last year for a $24.6 billion acquisition, with the intent of closing in the first quarter of 2024.
The deal has already raised objections from multiple states. And a Federal Trade Commission antitrust probe is ongoing.
Attorneys general from seven states sent a letter to the FTC on Aug. 16 urging Chairwoman Lina Khan to take action to halt the merger on grounds it would give the combined company roughly a quarter of the U.S. food market. Those states are Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico, Rhode Island and Vermont.
Ford said the merger stands to impact a large number of people in Nevada, both consumers and employees.
“You hear a lot of conversations around food deserts. You hear a lot of conversation around competition; you hear a lot of conversation around employment and jobs,” Ford said.
“And what we want to be certain to do is to get input from you all as we make determinations on how to proceed,” he said at the meeting.
Smith’s Food and Drug has 46 stores in a dozen Nevada cities. Albertsons has 35 stores statewide, while Vons has nine locations in Las Vegas and Henderson, and Safeway has seven stores in Northern Nevada.
Nationwide, the companies employ 710,000 workers in 4,996 stores.
In announcing the merger Oct. 14, company officials said Kroger and Albertsons are “anchored by shared values” and that a combined company would “drive profitable growth and sustainable value” for all stakeholders.
But for Nevada grocery workers, the Kroger-Albertsons merger reminds some industry veterans of past acquisitions that consolidated the market and eventually resulted in layoffs.
Mike Gittings, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 711, said a merger nearly a decade ago that married Albertsons with Safeway and Vons resulted in layoffs across the Southwest.
The union represents about 7,000 grocery workers in Southern Nevada, primarily at stores that would be impacted by the proposed merger.
“We’re concerned about the possibility of forced store divestitures, which could lead to layoffs,” Gittings told Ford. “We think that the FTC needs to take a hard look at how they evaluate these things. And not just, you know, a knee-jerk reaction or follow with what happened in the past, because most observers feel that was mishandled by the FTC nine years ago.”
Beyond the impact the merger could have on workers, it’s important to weigh how it could potentially benefit or hurt consumers across the state, Ford said.
Ford said the parties could partner with the state to avoid a potential lawsuit. That was the case in the 2019 merger between cellular providers Sprint and T-Mobile.
Nevada partnered with T-Mobile to ensure minimal layoffs, while a lawsuit other states used to try to stop that merger ultimately failed, Ford said.
People can take an online survey to share their thoughts on the proposed Smith's and Albertsons merger at: ag.nv.gov/hot_topics/grocery_stores_merger_survey/
