Albertsons, one of America’s largest grocery chains, is in big trouble. The company has been losing money for years, and its debt is now so high that it is in danger of defaulting on its loans. Albertsons’ problems are part of a wider crisis in the grocery industry, which is being squeezed by rising costs and falling sales.
Albertsons was founded in 1939 by Joe Albertson, a former Safeway executive. The company grew rapidly in the postwar years, becoming one of the largest grocery chains in the country.
But Albertsons ran into trouble in the late 1990s, when it was hit by a series of cost-cutting measures by rival Supermarkets. Albertsons responded by cutting its own costs, but this only made matters worse. The company’s sales fell, and it began to lose money.
Albertsons’ debt began to mount, and in 2006 the company was forced to sell itself to a private equity firm for $8.3 billion. The new owners tried to turn Albertsons around, but they were unsuccessful. In 2015, Albertsons was sold again, this time to a group of investors led by Cerberus Capital Management.
Cerberus has been trying to turn Albertsons around, but so far it has not been successful. In 2017, the company announced plans to close around 100 stores. And earlier this year, Albertsons announced that it was considering filing for bankruptcy.
The grocery industry is under pressure from all sides. Online retailers like Amazon are eating into traditional supermarkets’ sales, while at the same time costs are rising due to inflation and the need to invest in new technology and delivery infrastructure. These pressures have already caused a number of grocery chains to go out of business, and Albertsons may be next.
