In case you didn’t get the message the first time Kroger mentioned it 16 months ago, its planned merger with Albertsons won’t result in a monopolistic, competition-destroying behemoth, but better stores and lower prices for everyone. For real!
Kroger “shared additional insights” about its pricing plans, in an announcement this morning, pointing to previous mergers that it says resulted in lower prices.
After acquiring Harris Teeter in 2014, Kroger says it invested more than $125 million to lower prices. Its acquisition of Roundy’s two years later resulted in a similar $100 million investment. In both cases, Kroger says it also invested more than $2 million per store “to enhance the customer experience.” The spending actually contributed to a decline in the company’s gross margin over the years by 5%, Kroger says, as compared to competitors Amazon, Ahold Delhaize, Dollar General and Walmart, all of which increased their gross margins over the same period by 22%, 4%, 2% and 1%, respectively.
Here’s the full Coupons in the News article.
One SmartSource in this week’s paper (2/11), but it’s a fairly substantial one. Not all papers carry the same coupons or values, so this national list might show coupons we don’t get around Chicago.
