A famous pig could be coming to Calvert County, but it would likely happen amid the squeals of several parties who are opposed to the largest proposed supermarket merger in U.S. history.
The merger of The Kroger Company and Albertsons Companies Inc. was announced in 2022. It has since drawn opposition from the Federal Trade Commission and the attorneys general of several states, including Maryland.
Kroger owns several chains, including Harris Teeter, while Albertsons' string of stores includes Safeway.
Safeway and Harris Teeter both have locations in Dunkirk.
Last week Kroger and Albertsons released a list of nearly 600 stores that it will sell to C&S Wholesale Grocers LLC if and when federal officials approve the proposed merger.
C&S was founded over 100 years ago, as was Piggly Wiggly, which originated in Tennessee and, according to a synopsis of its history, originated the practice of food shoppers gathering items for purchase from store shelves. Prior to that, food shoppers relied on clerks to select the purchase items. According to the synopsis, during the late 1930s, a Piggly Wiggly in Oklahoma became the first store to offer shopping carts to customers.
The iconic chain, which became affiliated with C&S in 2003, has over 500 locations in the Southeast and Midwest.
“This is another exciting opportunity for C&S to expand into the retail market, which is an important component to our longterm growth,” Eric Winn, CEO of C&S, said in a press release last September when the agreement to purchase hundreds of stores from the two grocery behemoths was first announced.
Three other Harris Teeter stores in Maryland are on the divestiture list. Those stores are located in Easton, Olney and Germantown.
Back in February, officials with the Federal Trade Commission announced they were filing suit to block the proposed Kroger/Albertsons $24.6 billion merger, alleging the transaction is “anticompetitive.”
“This supermarket mega merger comes as American consumers have seen the cost of groceries rise steadily over the past few years,” Henry Lui of the trade commission’s bureau of competition stated in a February press release when the litigation was announced. “Essential grocery store workers would also suffer under this deal, facing the threat of their wages dwindling, benefits diminishing and their working conditions deteriorating.”
In August 2023, the Maryland Attorney General’s Office published an online survey to give state residents a chance to provide input on the proposed merger. According to the attorney general’s office “nearly 60%” of the respondents expressed concerns that the merger could lead to decreased competition, lower quality, less product diversity and would “inevitably wreak havoc on pricing and food availability.”
In reacting to last week’s release of the store divestiture list, the Landover-based United Food and Commercial Workers Union released a statement.
“Today’s announcement changes nothing,” the statement reads. “The merger is not a done deal, far from it. We remain focused on stopping the proposed mega-merger for the same reason we have stated since it was first announced over 20 months ago — because it would harm workers, it would harm shoppers, it would harm suppliers and communities and it is illegal.”
Southern Maryland News reached out for comment to H&R Retail, managers of the Shoppes of Apple Greene, where the Dunkirk Harris Teeter has been located since the summer of 2018. The grocer serves as the shopping center’s anchor store. No response was received.
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