The Kroger, Albertsons breakdown

It’s been just over ten days since Kroger and Albertsons announced they would merge in a $24.6 billion dollar deal, and the grocery industry has been reeling ever since. A brief rundown of the numbers: If it goes through, the deal will join the first-and second-largest U.S. supermarket retailers, creating a national company with almost 5,000 stores, 66 distribution centers, 52 manufacturing plants, 2,015 fuel centers and over 710,000 associates across 48 states and the District of Columbia. The merged entity also would be the fifth-largest retail pharmacy operator, with close to 4,000 pharmacy locations. In this special live edition of SN Off the Shelf, Supermarket News editors Chloe Riley and Russell Redman talk about how the merger could affect Kroger’s Ocado rollout, the impending U.S. Senate hearing, and additionally, whether a deal this big will even make it past regulators. Take a listen. In this episode, you’ll find out: Some of the ways independent grocers would be affected if the merger goes through How the deal could shift grocery market share among the top players Whether we’re going to see this deal trigger other grocery retail M&A deals and drive more brick-and-mortar consolidation in the industry Have a pitch for the podcast? Contact SN Executive Editor Chloe Riley at [email protected], or reach out and say hi on LinkedIn. Thanks so much for listening.