Tuesday, May 28, 2024 | 2 a.m.
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I’ve lived in Las Vegas for six decades. Most of those years my family has chosen to live in the middle of the city, in the oldest residential neighborhood in town. We have always loved to cook big Italian meals for our friends, neighbors and fellow church members. People must eat, right?
Over the years, we noticed that folks in our community were finding it more difficult to feed their families. Many were struggling to afford food, but they were also struggling to find food they needed and wanted. We have found ourselves living in a dreaded “food desert.” That is why I jumped at the chance to partner with our church to start the City Impact Center, where we created what is now the second-largest food bank in Southern Nevada.
The primary reason for this food desert is the lack of grocery products at good prices that used to populate these older neighborhoods. Last year, Kroger and Albertsons were reportedly trying to merge their companies. That was good news because it would offer customers a bigger selection of products, make their stores in Southern Nevada financially sound, and make more grocery items more affordable.
The merger needs to be approved by the Federal Trade Commission, which is working through the process to ensure that everything is being considered.
There is no need to worry that a merger is going to create some kind of Kroger-Albertsons grocery monopoly. Today there are three other stores that sell more groceries than them: Walmart, Amazon and Costco. According to the International Center for Law and Economics, the merger would make the company less than half the size of Costco at only an 8% share of the national market.
Kroger has aggressively improved supply chains across the country to ensure that we have the food we want and need on the shelves every day. It also makes it a priority to work with local farmers to get their fresh produce on our shelves. This is huge for the growing group of companies that use innovative methods of farming in our dry climate. We have a garden at the City Impact Center, and I can tell you firsthand how great it is to share that harvest of fresh produce with neighborhood families.
The presence of a company like Kroger in our community is also a tremendous encouragement to those of us who work every day to ensure that people don’t go hungry. In the past five years, Kroger has given a billion dollars to hunger relief, donated 500 million pounds of food, and provided over $44 million in grants for food recovery. It is committed to providing another 10 billion meals. This is a big deal.
Let’s do whatever is possible to encourage this Kroger-Albertsons merger to go through. It will be a great blessing for all as we strive to feed Southern Nevada.
Vic Caruso is director of City Impact Center, a nonprofit organization that fosters community development and enrichment.
