Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
But the other was the federal gov't, which forced the sale upon Cerberus.
Sorry but that is a gross mischaracterization. The FTC didn't force Cerberus Capital Management to sell its stores off to Hagen, in point of fact they didn't force CCM to do anything. CCM wanted to acquire 1,332 Safeway stores and knew full well before hand that in order to become if not the largest owner of grocery stores in a market that is being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands that they would have to pay a token regulatory price.
The fact that Hagen, failed is purely the problem of Hagen's own making. Cerberus had to divest of a mere 168 stores, of which Hagen LLC thought they could acquire 146 and make a return on their investment. Apparently they failed, how is that the FTC's fault?
[On Edit]
The whole point of the FTC ruling is provide the opportunity for competition to arise in a market that is becoming ever more uncompetitive. Aside from Hagens, A&P filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, effecting 301 stores under the various brands, of PathMark, SuperFress, and Food Basic there have been no buyers for the whole chain but... guess who... Acme/Ablertsons/Cerberus bought A&P held stores. That leaves some areas like southeast Pennsylvania and souther New Jersey with only three major chains, Acme, Shoprite/Wagefern, and Giant, and of course Walmart and Target. Makes for one hell of a competitive market for shoppers!
So what is it exactly that you would like the FTC to do, let two maybe three brands unimpeded control over food distribution, yeah that's right distribution, because that is exactly what would happen with monopolistic control of the food market in this country, or at the very least open opportunities for others to enter the market to either succeed or fail on their own merits?
Last edited by TheWiseWino; 09-13-2015 at 12:07 PM..
Sorry but that is a gross mischaracterization. The FTC didn't force Cerberus Capital Management to sell its stores off to Hagen, in point of fact they didn't force CCM to do anything. CCM wanted to acquire 1,332 Safeway stores and knew full well before hand that in order to become if not the largest owner of grocery stores in a market that is being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands that they would have to pay a token regulatory price.
The fact that Hagen, failed is purely the problem of Hagen's own making. Cerberus had to divest of a mere 168 stores, of which Hagen LLC thought they could acquire 146 and make a return on their investment. Apparently they failed, how is that the FTC's fault?
[On Edit]
The whole point of the FTC ruling is provide the opportunity for competition to arise in a market that is becoming ever more uncompetitive. Aside from Hagens, A&P filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, effecting 301 stores under the various brands, of PathMark, SuperFress, and Food Basic there have been no buyers for the whole chain but... guess who... Acme/Ablertsons/Cerberus bought A&P held stores. That leaves some areas like southeast Pennsylvania and souther New Jersey with only three major chains, Acme, Shoprite/Wagefern, and Giant, and of course Walmart and Target. Makes for one hell of a competitive market for shoppers!
So what is it exactly that you would like the FTC to do, let two maybe three brands unimpeded control over food distribution, yeah that's right distribution, because that is exactly what would happen with monopolistic control of the food market in this country, or at the very least open opportunities for others to enter the market to either succeed or fail on their own merits?
See that's the thing. The government should be more interested in the manner in which business is conducted vs who is conducting the business.
Competition breeds excellence and Haagen couldn't compete.
[the end]
Indeed, MANY questioned Haagen's ability to add such a large number of stores all at once. So this is more a failure of a privately owned business than of government regulation.
About a year ago, the large West coast grocery store chain Safeway was sold to a private equity company called Cerberus. All well and good, we had a willing seller and willing buyer. Safeway stockholders at the time overwhelmingly approved the deal: Safeway Gains Shareholder Approval For Cerberus Deal | Food World | Food Trade News
But the federal gov't felt the need to horn in, and insisted that approx. 150 of the stores involved be sold off to a company called Haggen, in order to ensure that no hint of monopoly power would be created. The result was a mess.
A friend of mine told me about his neighbor who had worked at a Safeway store for 30 years. The store was converted to 'Haggen' per fed request. It had been one of the biggest and highest volume stores on the West Coast, but after conversion, sales dropped by 60%. She wanted to transfer to another Safeway store, but was not allowed that option. She's up the creek w/o a paddle, while the federal regulators who created this mess go tra-la-la on their way with zero accountability.
The very idea of monopoly in the grocery industry is just dumb in the era of Walmart, Costco, Amazon, etc.
Didn't you leave out Albertsons? How did they get into this mess?
The morons in the federal government should have no say in any such deal. These are the same clueless morons that have run up a $18 trillion debt...50% of that in the last 8 years. These clowns, who have (with a very few exceptions) never started or managed a successful private business in their lives, are the very last people anyone with a brain would listen to about business.
I disagree. Cable bills are going up ridiculously, thank god the Feds blocked the Comcast-Time Warner deal. That would have resulted in something even more approaching a monopoly.
Business needs to be controlled because businesses are inherently dishonest because they put their own good over the good of the country.
Sorry but that is a gross mischaracterization. The FTC didn't force Cerberus Capital Management to sell its stores off to Hagen, in point of fact they didn't force CCM to do anything. CCM wanted to acquire 1,332 Safeway stores and knew full well before hand that in order to become if not the largest owner of grocery stores in a market that is being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands that they would have to pay a token regulatory price.
The fact that Hagen, failed is purely the problem of Hagen's own making. Cerberus had to divest of a mere 168 stores, of which Hagen LLC thought they could acquire 146 and make a return on their investment. Apparently they failed, how is that the FTC's fault?
[On Edit]
The whole point of the FTC ruling is provide the opportunity for competition to arise in a market that is becoming ever more uncompetitive. Aside from Hagens, A&P filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, effecting 301 stores under the various brands, of PathMark, SuperFress, and Food Basic there have been no buyers for the whole chain but... guess who... Acme/Ablertsons/Cerberus bought A&P held stores. That leaves some areas like southeast Pennsylvania and souther New Jersey with only three major chains, Acme, Shoprite/Wagefern, and Giant, and of course Walmart and Target. Makes for one hell of a competitive market for shoppers!
So what is it exactly that you would like the FTC to do, let two maybe three brands unimpeded control over food distribution, yeah that's right distribution, because that is exactly what would happen with monopolistic control of the food market in this country, or at the very least open opportunities for others to enter the market to either succeed or fail on their own merits?
Haggen is suing Albertsons claiming the financials on the basis of which they bought the stores were cooked.
(Still dunno how/when Albertsons got into this mess, perhaps Cerberus acquired Albertsons before buying Safeway?)
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
