I am honored to receive the endorsements of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 7 and the Teamsters Local 455 to lead Colorado as our next governor. We have worked closely together, giving me the chance to get to know the members of each of these unions, as I listened to their concerns and took in the importance of stepping up to support them when it counts. 

Several years ago, Kroger and Albertsons—two of Colorado’s largest supermarket chains that own King Soopers and City Market and Safeway and Albertsons, respectively—agreed to merge for $24.6 billion. This merger raised the prospects of harming dozens of Colorado communities with supermarket closures, higher grocery prices, and lost union jobs.   

As Attorney General, I had the responsibility to review this merger under Colorado and federal antitrust laws. My response, which had never been done before, was to lead by listening—and show up in communities across the state to hear from consumers, workers, farmers, and community leaders about the concrete impacts this merger would have on Coloradans.

When this merger was announced, many assumed it was a done deal. After all, an earlier merger between Albertsons and Safeway was waved through, and no merger in Colorado had been challenged under our state antitrust law. And these are some of the biggest corporations in the country. But my view is not to ask “what have we always done?,” but rather “what’s the best way forward?” That’s how we came up with the idea of 19 town halls focused on the merger and its potential impacts.

The important points raised by consumers, workers, and farmers during these town halls—underscoring again and again on why this merger would be bad for Colorado—remain with me. But more than that, I recall the shared solidarity of the hundreds of Coloradans who showed up around our state to be heard—and who were there to support one another.  

Take Tom Olson. Tom worked in a Safeway in Golden. He showed up at our Golden Town Hall (captured below) to tell me about the seniors in his community who would be left in the lurch when a store closed because they needed a grocery location that they could walk to. Tom came to several other Town Halls as well supporting other workers and expressing his deep concerns about the merger.  

Or Kevin Kuns, who lived in Montrose and jokingly said that his mom loved the meat cutter at the local supermarket more than him and was worried about a loss of choice and higher prices if the merger went through. 

Or a Delta County farmer who told me he would lose access to grocery stores that carry local food.

Community leaders came and spoke up at every event. 

In Eagle County, they were concerned about how a grocery store closing would leave an empty store front that would be a blight for the community—-just like what happened in Glenwood Springs after the last merger.

In Gunnison County, County Commissioner Liz Smith worried that the merger would leave that community vulnerable to supply chain shocks. Two stores provided a check on one another if one was out of milk or eggs; one store with a single source of milk or eggs would leave them vulnerable. After all, City Market’s supplies came from Denver and Safeway’s came from Salt Lake so it was common that one might be out of eggs or milk while the other store was well supplied.

Sharon Ketchum’s story at the Canon City Town Hall has stayed with me. She expressed her fear that this merger would lead her to lose her job just as the prior Safeway-Albertsons merger did–when she lost her job in Craig after a store closed. 

I listened to each of these people and really heard what they had to say. And I took what I learned and I asked the companies directly about how they would respond to these concerns. They did not have adequate answers and we thus went to court to challenge the merger. In doing so, I also challenged an illegal agreement by the two companies to not hire each others’ workers during a strike. 

The proposed merger was abandoned after rulings in the parallel cases concluded the merger was illegal. Our challenge to the illegal agreement is ongoing. The three cases challenging the merger—one by us, one by the State of Washington, and one by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and a coalition of states—were a model of effective collaboration. 

It was the right thing to do, and we stopped the merger.

* * *

From my work on challenging this grocery store merger, I got to know many workers at the two companies. I also saw some of them on the picket lines when Safeway workers went on strike for fair wages and working conditions (even after showing up for Coloradans day-in and day-out during the pandemic). 

That’s why the endorsements from the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 7 and the Teamsters Local 455 are so meaningful to me. They represent their respect and acknowledgement of the important work we’ve done together.  

How we show up for one another matters. By showing up and really listening, we demonstrate our commitment to governing the way President Lincoln captured it—as a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. 

That’s how I have shown up as your Attorney General and that’s how I will show up as your next Governor.