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☆ Slowing inflation is dragging on Kroger sales, even as consumers still feel a pinch
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-08 | by ( Melissa Repko | In Melissa-Repko | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

But it has created risk that customers could turn to retailers known for lower food prices, such as Walmart, Aldi or Dollar General . Kroger reaffirmed its full-year guidance, saying it expects identical sales excluding fuel to range between 1% and 2%. In an earnings release, he said the grocer expects inflation to "continue to decelerate" and expects a tougher backdrop for consumers in the months ahead. Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen said on an earnings call that slowing inflation could lift sales in another way. He said Kroger has stepped up security and added new tech to try to fight crime, but said Kroger expects the theft trends "will continue to be a challenge for the remainder of the year."

Persons: Kroger, Fred Meyer, Ralphs, King Soopers, Gary Millerchip, Rodney McMullen, McMullen, Millerchip Organizations: Kroger, LSEG, Target, Walmart, Aldi, Express, U.S . Bureau of Labor Statistics, Albertsons, S Wholesale Grocers, Grand Union Locations: U.S, Florida, Washington ,

☆ Why Prices, Inflation Are Still Soaring: Corporate Price Gouging
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

While many of the problems that helped trigger the upward spiral have abated, prices are still high and getting higher. The idea that companies are taking advantage of disruptions to push price increases on consumers has many names — greedflation, excuseflation, price gouging, corporate profiteering — but the gist is the same. Supply-chain issues and other disruptions made sense as drivers of higher prices, Chris Becker, a senior economist and the associate director of policy and research at the Groundwork Collaborative, told me. "Working people are suffering thanks to corporate greed, so we need to enact tougher rules to ensure corporations pay a price when they price gouge." Working people are suffering thanks to corporate greed, so we need to enact tougher rules to ensure corporations pay a price when they price gouge.

☆ Kroger is the latest retailer to spend big on employee wages as the job market tightens
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Kroger is latest retailer to say it will spend more this year on worker wages as companies fight to keep employees in a tight labor market. The grocery chain will spend $770 million more on employee pay and benefits in 2023, it said after reporting earnings on Thursday. Kroger operates stores under 19 different names, including Ralph's in Southern California and Mariano's in Chicago. The Ohio-based grocer follows companies like Home Depot and Walmart in committing to raise wages this year. Walmart said in January that it would increase its minimum wage to $14 from the previous $12-an-hour rate.

☆ Kroger and Albertsons want to create a grocery empire. The last supermarket mega-merger backfired
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

With the FTC’s blessing, Haggen, a small supermarket chain in the Northwest with just 18 locations, bought 146 of the former Albertsons and Safeway stores, including the one where Martinez worked. In an weird twist, Albertsons bought back dozens of the same stores it previously sold to Haggen in bankruptcy court — at a lower price. Now she worries Kroger will divest Ralphs as part of its merger with Albertsons in a repeat of the Haggen 2015 deal. To address antitrust concerns that the merger will stifle competition in local markets where they overlap, Kroger and Albertsons plan to divest stores. In 2015, Haggen bought a Vons grocery store (owned by Safeway at the time) in Carpinteria as part of the Albertsons and Safeway divestitures.

The spin-out structure would make it easier and faster for Kroger and Albertsons to divest stores if they cannot easily sell them outright, people familiar with the arrangement said. The companies may struggle to find many buyers because Albertsons' stores are unionized, making them less attractive to potential bidders such as private equity firms. Kroger and Albertsons are likely to shed their least profitable stores and keep the best ones to themselves, analysts said. That region contains the most store-overlap between Kroger and Albertsons and is where divestitures are most likely, according to analysts. They intend for the spun-off company to not carry any debt, the sources added.

☆ Kroger Pauses Buybacks to Prioritize Debt Reduction After Albertsons Deal Closes
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Kristin Broughton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +4 min

The blockbuster transaction comes amid a slowdown in deal making, economic uncertainty and concerns among investors about companies that carry high levels of debt. Cincinnati-based Kroger said Friday that it will pay for the $24.6 billion deal with cash and proceeds from a new debt financing. The company secured a 364-day, $17.4 billion bridge loan from Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co., it said in a securities filing. Kroger will temporarily pause buybacks with the goal of giving priority to debt reduction after the transaction closes, the company said Friday. The company on Friday didn’t say what its leverage ratio will be after the transaction closes.

☆ Kroger has to win over Wall Street and Washington on its Albertsons deal – here's how it plans to do that
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Melissa Repko | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

In this article ACIKR Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNTA customer shops for eggs in a Kroger grocery store on August 15, 2022 in Houston, Texas. Brandon Bell | Getty ImagesKroger knows it needs the blessing of investors and federal regulators to pull off its $24.6 billion deal to buy rival grocery company Albertsons . If approved, the grocers would become a more formidable second place in terms of grocery market share behind Walmart . Together, the companies would capture nearly 16% of the U.S. grocery market, according to market researcher Numerator. That's because Wall Street has already seen a spree of grocer acquisitions — including some by Kroger and Albertsons — but no meaningful changes in profit margins.

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