With a potential merger between two national supermarket chains hanging in the balance, dozens of concerned employees and consumers showed out to Attorney General Phil Weiser’s town hall Wednesday night in Colorado Springs to share their stories and push for action.

Attendees say the merger between Kroger and Albertsons, which operate King Soopers and Safeway, respectively, puts communities’ food security and employees’ jobs at risk.

“We spend our lives building these reputations,” said Mary Slyter, an employee at the West Colorado Avenue Safeway. “We’re the ones that make the name. We’re the ones that bust butt to make sure that they see their profit, but yet we’re the ones which always get left out in the rain.”

The town hall, led by Weiser and state Sen. Tony Exum Sr. at Carmel Community School, not far from the South Academy Boulevard King Soopers closed due to asbestos, is the 13th such “listening session” Weiser has held in order to better understand community concerns and answer questions.

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“The antitrust laws are very clear: If a merger substantially lessens competition or can tend towards a monopoly, it’s illegal, and I as Colorado’s attorney general has the authority – and I would say the obligation – to go to court to stop such a merger,” Weiser said.

The Colorado Attorney General’s Office is reviewing the merger as part of a multistate investigation into potential impacts such a move would have on suppliers, employees and consumers. Weiss said a resolution likely won’t come until late this year or early 2024.

The companies first announced the proposed merger in October as an estimated $24.6 billion acquisition by Kroger. Though Kroger says its acquisition wouldn’t result in front-line worker layoffs or higher prices – even suggesting prices would be lower as a result – Wednesday’s attendees disagreed, accusing the corporation of acting deceptively at the expense of employees.

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Patty Lif, a Centennial Boulevard King Soopers employee of 14 years, said losing her long-held job is her biggest concern. She relies on that paycheck to pay rent and feed her family, including her recently moved-in mother-in-law.

“We all know these companies are not going to follow their promises. Once the ink dries, front-line workers are going to disappear,” Slyter said.

Weiser said he will be reviewing the merger not based on paper promises but on “actual evidence and track record.” He referenced the 2015 merger between Albertsons and Safeway, which served as a “natural experiment” testing what could happen between Kroger and Albertsons. A number of stores closed as a result, he said.

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“The fact that there were stores closed after the last merger leads reasonable people to say … ‘fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me,'” Weiser said. “Any commitments they’re going to offer, I need to be convinced they’re actually enforceable and we’re not going to be fooled.”

Loretta Guy, an employee at the closed South Academy Boulevard King Soopers, said the merger will lead to job loss, higher prices for consumers and food deserts.

“If Kroger can’t even keep its employees and customers safe from asbestos here in Colorado Springs in one store, given the company knew there was asbestos for over a year, why should the government allow Kroger to manage 5,000 stores and keep employees safe?” Guy asked.

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Several attendees voiced concern over a merger further exacerbating existing food deserts in the area or creating more.

Growing up, Lif said she had to walk an hour and a half in order to access healthy foods at the nearest grocery store. She still deals with health issues as an adult, which she attributed to poor food consumption as a kid.

“We are all completely against [the merger],” said Erika Cervantes, a community organizer for statewide nonprofit Hunger Free Colorado. “As things are now, they’re not working. People who have dietary restrictions don’t have access to those special foods because they’re limited in the stores that are already here, and as we know here in the Springs, one of the King Soopers is closed. That has caused a huge burden on the local community organizations, as well, because they’re the ones having to pick up the slack on that.”

Weiser said the issue of antitrust enforcement and, by extension, food inequity, is a bipartisan issue because “Competition is an American value.”

“Let me be really clear,” Weiser said. “I don’t care how big any company is. They have to follow the law, and if they do something that breaks the law, I will have to hold them accountable.”

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