On Second Thought, Colorado’s Two Largest Grocers Aren’t Merging

For more than two years, the corporate owners of Colorado's two largest grocery stores have been working on a merger that might have combined where most of us get our milk, eggs and bread.

Albertson's - which is the parent company of Safeway, believe it or not - and Kroger, the parent company of King Soopers announced their plans to merge back in October of 2022.

It's been a long, bumpy road ever since and those plans officially appear to be dead in the water today after Albertson's pulled out of the deal worth nearly $25 billion dollars... that's billion, with a B.

Along the way, both companies have essentially pointed the finger at the other, claiming they weren't doing their collective parts to make the merger a reality. Then earlier this week, a US District Court in Oregon blocked the merger until the FTC could rule on it. The State of Washington followed suit.

Both Albertson's and/or Kroger could have appealed or waited for the FTC ruling, but Albertson's said "nope" and took their ball and bat and went home, calling off the merger as they backed out completely and filed a lawsuit against their former potential partner trying to get back some of the money they spent during the merger process.

So it appears that Safeway and King Soopers will remain independent of each other after all.