The Pavilions supermarket at 7544 Girard Ave. in La Jolla is on a list of 579 stores nationwide that Kroger and Albertsons say would be sold under a proposed merger of the grocery giants.
Eleven of those locations are in San Diego County.
According to Bloomberg, Kroger sent a memo to employees at all of the affected stores notifying them of the plans to spin off the locations to C&S Wholesale Grocers if the merger goes through. All employees are expected to be able to maintain their employment with C&S, officials have said.
C&S is a national wholesale grocery supply company based in New Hampshire. It operates and/or s corporate grocery stores and independent franchisees throughout the Midwest, South and Northeast. It owns the Piggly Wiggly and Grand Union supermarket brands, among others.
Kroger and Albertsons are the largest and second-largest supermarket chains in North America. Kroger operates the Ralphs and Food 4 Less chains, among others. Albertsons’ subsidiaries include the Vons, Pavilions and Safeway chains.
The merger is being challenged by the Federal Trade Commission, which claims the proposed $24.6 billion deal would lead to higher grocery prices through a reduction in marketplace competition and could negatively affect workers.
Kroger has denied such claims, saying no stores, distribution centers or manufacturing facilities would be closed and that “customers will benefit from lower prices and more choices” through the merger.
The United Food and Commercial Workers union, which represents grocery workers, issued a statement saying it continues to oppose the merger.
“The merger is not a done deal — far from it,” according to the union. “We remain focused on stopping the proposed mega-merger for the same reasons we have stated since it was first announced over 20 months ago — because we know it would harm workers, it would harm shoppers, it would harm suppliers and communities and it is illegal. The merger proposal was rejected in January and February by the attorneys general from the states of Colorado and Washington and the Federal Trade Commission. We applaud their actions. They have been in possession of this proposed divestiture list … for months and that did not change their opposition to the proposed merger.
“These legal challenges to the proposed merger are moving forward with hearings beginning at the end of July and scheduled to go through September.”
— La Jolla Light staff contributed to this report. ♦
