Kroger and Albertsons sold 400 stores, and some grocery stores, in California

Kroger and Albertsons are in talks to sell more than 400 grocery stores to C&S Wholesale Grocers, according to Reuters. Bloomberg He was first to break the news on Tuesday, reporting that the potential sale is a move aimed at gaining regulatory approval for the $25 billion merger of Kroger and Albertsons.

The deal, which could be announced as early as this week, will primarily affect stores in the Pacific Northwest and the Mountain states, as well as some stores in California, Texas, Illinois and the East Coast, according to Reuters.

Albertsons has a fairly large footprint in the Bay Area, especially with Safeway — as of October 2022, there were 161 Safeway stores in the Bay Area, according to San Francisco Chronicle (The Chronicle and SFGATE are both owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms.) Albertons also owns Andronico’s and Pak ‘n Save, which have stores in the Bay Area, as well as Vons and Pavilions, which have locations in Southern California.

Kroger has a smaller presence in the Bay Area, with five Foods Co. stores. in San Francisco, Oakland, Richmond, and Pittsburgh. Kroger also operates Ralphs and Food 4 Less in Southern California.

C&S, the potential buyer of the stores, is primarily a supplier of grocery stores, not an operator, however it operates some stores under the Midwest/Southern Piggly Wiggly brand and the Grand Union brand on the East Coast. Japanese investment group SoftBank is in talks to help C&S finance the roughly $2 billion deal, according to Reuters.

If this potential sale helps the Kroger-Albertsons merger clear regulatory and antitrust hurdles, it would become one of the largest mergers in retail history. The merger is expected to close in early 2024, according to Bloomberg.

Kroger, Albertsons, and C&S Wholesale Grocers did not respond to SFGATE’s requests for comment in time for publication.