Photo by Rithika Gopalakrishnan on Unsplash
Last week, two of America’s largest grocery stores, Kroger and Albertsons, announced they had reached a mega-deal to merge into one. The two corporate chains control a huge sum of the grocery market, as both own dozens of regional chains across the nation.
The retailers hope the nearly $25 billion deal will help them compete with other mega-corporations like Walmart and Amazon, which control increasingly ginormous shares of the market. If approved by federal regulators, the Kroger-Albertsons deal would further consolidate an economy dominated by a handful of massive corporations.
The merger would likely see prices rise, prompting a time of hardship for consumers. This often occurs as mergers in concentrated markets decrease competition and facilitate monopolistic pricing strategies that hurt customers and small businesses.
In the past 30 years, the number of independent grocery stores has declined by 30% and other industries have seen a similar trend. Mom-and-pop shops have disappeared as tycoons such as CVS, Walmart and Starbucks dominate their respective industries.
Federal antitrust laws have been bent and obscured to let these corporations slide. While social media and tech giants have exemplified the dangers of letting massive greed machines control huge aspects of consumers’ lives, little has been done to stop them.
Amazon accounts for nearly 40% of the e-commerce market, while Google has a 90% share in the global search engine market – these statistics are exemplary of big tech’s enormous power. If Amazon thinks your product rivals something they’re selling, they won’t show it; if Google doesn’t like your website, they can hide your results. In addition to forcing us into submission, big tech tracks and profits off our data whether we consent or not.
In 2015, three companies, AT&T, Verizon and Sprint, owned more than 70% of all cell towers in the United States, forcing consumers into paying huge bills that fund their excessive profits. What kind of phone will the consumer buy? Likely an iPhone, with Apple controlling 50% of the American cell phone market.
In the past decade, Disney has acquired tens of other media companies. With ABC, ESPN and FOX, Disney controls huge swaths of TV, in addition to owning two of the largest streaming services, Disney+ and Hulu.
Maybe you prefer to read rather than watch – you can buy your book from the world’s largest bookseller: Amazon. Or read on your Kindle … or iPad. Maybe you prefer to listen? Apple, Amazon and Google own three of the five largest music streaming platforms.
Americans are so trapped by a select few companies, that there is virtually no real choice. With no competition, there’s no incentive to lower prices.
For too long the regulatory boards and Congress have sat idle in this consolidation of power by these mega corporations. Both those on the left and right have recognized this, yet still little action has been taken.
Progressive Vermont senator Bernie Sanders tweeted last week, “At a time when food prices are soaring as a result of corporate greed, it would be an absolute disaster to allow Kroger, the [second] largest grocery store in America, to merge with Albertsons, the [fourth] largest grocery store in America. The Biden Administration must reject this deal.”
Utah Republican Mike Lee agreed, adding in a statement, “Utahns, like all Americans, are suffering from skyrocketing food prices … I will do everything in my power to ensure our antitrust laws are robustly enforced to protect consumers from anticompetitive mergers that could further exacerbate the financial strain we already feel.”
Breaking up big business isn’t a partisan issue. Monopolistic practices corner consumers and suppress the economy. Denying the Kroger-Albertsons deal could be a turning point in showing the corporate overlords they don’t have the right to bully and take advantage of American consumers.
