THE SAFEWAY STORY: ALIGNING LABOR, CAPITAL, AND COMMUNITY
Open Access
Author:
Payne, Nicole Allison
Area of Honors:
Interdisciplinary in Finance and Labor and Employment Relations
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Paul Vincent Whitehead, Thesis Supervisor Dr. Brian Spangler Davis, Thesis Honors Advisor Stanley Morris Gully, Thesis Honors Advisor James Alan Miles, Faculty Reader
Keywords:
merger acquisition Safeway Albertsons Cerberus grocery Teamster UFCW LBO IPO white knight white squire ESOP labor capital community
Abstract:
With the frequency of mergers and acquisitions increasing in the post-2008 period, understanding and evaluating the consequences of them is necessary to making these endeavors profitable and successful for all parties involved. The purpose of this research is to use the recent merger between Safeway and Albertsons as a case study to understand how a merger or acquisition can cause tension and division between three stakeholders: employees (labor), owners (capital), and community members (consumers). The study analyzes the impact of the merger on all three groups and discusses the shortcomings of previous methods to resolve these issues in the grocery industry. This paper then seeks to solve these conflicts of interests by proposing three strategies that can be implemented that facilitate the alignment of the three stakeholder groups: a labor oriented “white knight” or “white squire”, an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), or strategic corporate research combined with a consumer-driven initiative.
