Competition Roundtable: Taking Stock of Competition in Retail Grocery – Consolidation, Buyer Power, and Consumer Choice

Small, independent businesses are often touted as the backbone of the economy, providing important choice to consumers, service and quality that are not available from larger market participants, and as integral members of urban and rural communities. But small businesses continue to lose ground to dominant firms and entrenched chains, especially in the retail grocery sector.

This AAI competition roundtable: Taking Stock of Competition in Retail Grocery – Consolidation, Buyer Power, and Consumer Choice took a fresh, current look at competition in this critically important sector. Expert panelists from public and private enforcement, regulatory agencies, trade associations, advocacy groups, and academia unpacked problems and challenges and framed priorities for promoting and protecting competition moving forward.

PANEL DESCRIPTIONS:

Panel 1 – The Industry Perspective: Rising Concentration, the Role of Smaller Players, and Diversity in the Grocery Supply Chain

This panel set the table for a robust discussion of pressing competition issues in the retail grocery sector. Panelists begin with their observations on consolidation and rising concentration in the sector, vertical integration and contracting, and the shift in bargaining power away from smaller and independent market participants in the grocery supply chain. Experts shared analysis on incentives, strategies, and practices pursued by dominant firms and oligopolies to exclude competitors or otherwise limit competition. They then related them to demonstrable, adverse effects on grocery consumers, including higher prices, lower quality, less choice, and a less diverse and stable food supply chain.

Panel 2 – The Enforcement Perspective: Framing a Unified Approach to Promoting Competition in Retail Grocery Through Antitrust Enforcement and Other Policy Tools

This panel integrated observations from the industry panel into a discussion of enforcement and other policy tools for addressing escalating competition problems in the retail grocery sector. Panelists explored antitrust and regulatory approaches to promoting competition through challenges to anticompetitive mergers, addressing harmful conduct, effective public and private remedies, agency advocacy and education, and other channels. They offered insights into how public and private antitrust enforcement and regulatory policy can work together through increased coordination, rulemaking authority, integration of competition and industry expertise, and other tools for protecting competition and consumers.

AAI events are made possible by our 2021 Annual Sponsors.