A few months ago, Kroger and Albertsons announced that they will be merging their companies, but different groups of people have strong opinions. The companies are trying to argue that the merger will be good for consumers and customers because it is making the shopping process across the country easier. However, the real winners are the group of investors, Cerberus, who will make billions of dollars in profits from the merger.

While corporations seem to be making people’s lives easier with their mega-mergers, they are really hurting small business owners. This merger may make it easier for customers to get their groceries and cheaper, but it will ultimately be the same products all across the country. This will take business from smaller vendors who cannot sell at cheaper prices, not to mention those who own their own small grocery stores.

Take State College as an example, small companies like Way’s Fruit Farm are having difficulty competing with the huge grocery stores that have moved to town, like Walmart, Aldis, Wegmans, Giant, Weis, and more. Now, instead of getting fresh produce from a locally-sourced store, students at Penn State are opting to go to the mega stores because it is what they know. The huge grocery chains are destroying business for local farmers and retailers, and it will only get worse as the chains grow.

This huge merger will mean that these chain stores will no longer compete against each other. While this can be beneficial for a while, capitalism ultimately cannot thrive without competition. Therefore, major corporations cannot continue to merge like this in order to make huge profits for a short period of time. Customers need to have choices in order for any company to make money, but these stores only give customers the idea of choice. With no real competition on the market, consumers will actually end up paying more for food during an already inflated time in the market.

Ultimately, this merger between Kroger and Albertsons means bad news for other businesses and consumers in the long run. This article in the New York Times tells more about the issue at hand and how people are reacting to it.