The Friday Checkout is a weekly column providing more insight on the news, rounding up the announcements you may have missed and sharing what’s to come.
When Kroger and Albertsons announced their ill-fated merger plan four years ago, Kroger time and again exuded confidence that its controversial effort to absorb Albertsons would ultimately pass muster with regulators.
In retrospect, however, former Kroger Chairman and CEO Rodney McMullen had reason to doubt the merger he engineered and championed would get approved even as he claimed it was set for success. In testimony delivered on Tuesday during the ongoing trial over whether Kroger is to blame for the deal’s implosion in late 2024, McMullen said the deal “was just doomed from the beginning” because the FTC was deeply opposed to mergers under then-Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, Bloomberg reported.
Khan’s deep skepticism about corporate combinations was hardly a secret. In January 2022, she lamented in a statement that mergers were “threatening to concentrate our markets further,” adding that ordinary Americans had “lost out” even as deal-making soared. Kroger and Albertsons had access to sophisticated antitrust legal counsel, who surely would have alerted McMullen that Khan would likely take an especially dim view of any transaction that could be viewed as limiting competition in a sector as sensitive as the grocery industry.
McMullen also told the court on Tuesday that he depended on his lieutenants at Kroger to manage its relationship with Albertsons during the merger process, Bloomberg reported. To some extent, that validates former Albertsons CEO Vivek Sankaran’s testimony the day before that Kroger wasn’t responsive to his efforts to communicate with McMullen.
On Monday, Sankaran testified that he felt he should not have been shunted to people other than McMullen when he sought to speak up about the deal, underscoring that Kroger firmly controlled the companies’ negotiations with the FTC — and, by extension, the deal’s fate.
Sankaran also made the case in court that Kroger set the deal up for failure by offering the FTC underwhelming store-divestment proposals even as the agency showed signs that it might oppose the merger. McMullen pushed back on Sankaran’s assertions, claiming in his testimony that Kroger lived up to its obligations under the merger deal, according to Bloomberg.
Kroger’s effort to merge with Albertsons was a highly complex undertaking that would have been challenging to execute under any circumstances. But no matter how the judge in their trial rules about Albertsons’ claim that Kroger ruined the merger and should be held liable for billions in damages as a result, one simple question will persist: If the companies knew — or should have known — that getting their deal past the FTC would be monumentally difficult, should they have even tried to merge in the first place?
In case you missed it
Ahold Delhaize announces start date for next president
Thierry Garnier has an official start date as Ahold Delhaize’s next president and CEO. He will join the company on Jan. 11, 2027, as an executive vice president and assume the top leadership roles on March 3, when Frans Muller, the company’s president and CEO, retires, according to a Wednesday announcement.
“Thierry will spend significant time in Ahold Delhaize’s markets with our brands to get to know our business, customers and people as part of his onboarding before his tenure as President and CEO begins,” the company said in the announcement.
Halloween buying spooks more customers
U.S. consumers plan to spend an average of $30 less on Halloween supplies this year than they did in 2025, according to a LendingTree survey cited in a Retail Dive article. Among people who plan to shop for Halloween, nearly two-thirds said they would skip some purchases, including candy (35%) and costumes (29%), according to the survey, which polled 2,000 shoppers.
FMI — The Food Industry Association welcomes new board members
The trade group announced on Monday 17 additions to its board of directors. The new members include 1939 Group Chairman and CEO Todd Schnuck, Heritage Grocers Group CEO David Hinojosa, Ahold Delhaize USA CEO Claire Peters, and Family Dollar CEO and Chairman Duncan MacNaughton.
Impulse find
Trader Joe’s has a fashion rival
Trader Joe’s popular canvas tote bags seem to have influenced a high-profile competitor’s newest reusable bag.
Costco has started selling two new heavy-duty canvas tote bags in the United States, Iohud reported. And the designs on the club retailer’s bags bear a striking resemblance to ones sold by the specialty grocer. Made by KeepCool, the cream-colored totes sport the Costco Wholesale logo and have either black or red accents. The two-pack, which retails for $10.99 online, includes a small bag and an extra-large one.
The real test will be whether Costco-branded bags can become as much of a global status symbol as Trader Joe’s bags.
