With grocery prices still high, another supermarket merger may seem difficult to defend. Kroger’s proposed acquisition of Giant Eagle is especially striking because Kroger’s previous attempt to acquire Albertsons was blocked.
But the two mergers do not appear to eliminate competition in the same way.
Kroger and Albertsons competed across numerous local grocery markets. The proposed remedy required the transfer of 579 stores, brands, distribution assets, and other parts of the business to create a replacement competitor.
Kroger and Giant Eagle mostly operate in different regions. The main competitive concern appears to be Columbus, where the merger comfortably exceeds the government’s HHI concentration thresholds.
This episode explains why grocery markets are local, what HHI actually measures, why a serious problem in one city may not justify blocking an entire transaction, and why antitrust is not simply a rule that large companies must never become larger.
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