The recently announced Kroger’s-Albertson’s merger creates a potential dilemma for my wife, Nicole.
Nicole has decided she is fed up with the snide service delivered by the personnel at the BB #:100073 Kroger-owned Mariano’s in Wheaton, IL. She has instead opted to go for the nearby Jewel-Osco, where she finds the staff much more friendly. Jewel-Osco is owned by Albertsons BB #:193326.
If this merger goes through as proposed, which will it be?
Will the Mariano’s shed its snotty (and probably overworked) staff and become more like agreeable Jewel? Or will it be the other way around? Or will one be forced to close?
My own sense of corporate mergers raises a sinking feeling in my stomach in response.
Speaking in that peculiar dialect of the English language known as corporatese, Rodney McMullen, Kroger chairman and CEO (who will continue serving as chairman and CEO of the combined company), says, “This merger advances our commitment to build a more equitable and sustainable food system by expanding our footprint into new geographies to serve more of America with fresh and affordable food and accelerates our position as a more compelling alternative to larger and non-union competitors.”
Who gets paid for writing this stuff?
Translating the above, I gather that the merger is intended to enable the combined entity to compete more directly with “larger and non-union competitors”—presumably Walmart.
“The combined company will be able to offer customers a more personalized and convenient omnichannel experience including in-store shopping, enhanced pickup capabilities, faster delivery times, and more capabilities to serve the customer anything, anytime, anywhere with zero compromise on quality, selection and affordability,” says the joint press release.
“Anything, anytime, anywhere?” Wow. I could think of a few things.
My own reading of all this: it is going to come down to customer service—the thing that has been most grossly neglected in retail grocery in recent years.
Consider the Amazon-Whole Foods merger. A friendly, accessible, committed Whole Foods staff has been replaced by a bunch of clerks running around with carts to fill online orders.
It is hard to see a burgeoning future for online grocery at this point. The pandemic is more or less over, so people aren’t afraid to go to the store as much. And inflation is making delivery charges of any sort that much more obnoxious.
If this merger enables the combined entity to provide adequate staffing for in-store shopping—meaning that clerks aren’t so busy that they’re irritable and snide—it could be a good thing. Otherwise, I have my misgivings.
Business cliché: big fish eats little fish.
Except that sometimes big fish eats so many little fish (or another fish that’s almost as big) that it becomes fat, lazy, and stupid and goes belly-up—leaving the surviving smaller fish to pick up the scraps.
As for Nicole, she’s just discovered the Woodman’s in Bloomingdale, IL, and is finding that extremely promising.
