The proposed merger of grocery giants Kroger and Albertsons, if approved, is likely to result in higher food prices for many Americans, more food deserts, and other well-documented harms to American society. But a less discussed matter is how a major shift in digital advertising may be helping to drive consolidation, with powerful retailers fast emerging as some of the biggest players in so-called retail media.

Under this model, chain stores and dominant online sellers exploit their control over key marketplaces to sell ads that target their own customers. Such retailers use their first-hand access to shopper data — also called first-party data — to sell ad spots on channels they directly own, and to sell shoppers’ profiles to manufacturers and other companies for use in advertising on other online sites and platforms. Amazon is one of the pioneers of this model, first moving into advertising in 2016 and earning $1.4 billion in its first year. This year, Amazon is on pace to make at least $37 billion in ad revenues. In all, retail media makes up 11% of total ad spending this year.

One reason for the rise of such ad systems is profit margins of 70 to 90 percent, which far exceed the 20-percent margins normally seen in the grocery sector, according to Boston Consulting Group. In this context, the Kroger-Albertsons deal would be the first big merger driven by the promise of making more money from digital ads. The new corporation would not only harness the power of their proprietary ad tech tools, but also the data coming from nearly 5,000 stores serving 85 million households. As one analyst told the Wall Street Journal, “It’s about building a retail media juggernaut.”

Under this model, corporations like Walmart or Target offer ad spaces tied to searches on their own websites. The retailers also allow advertisers to access their first-party data through demand-side platforms, which manage all audiences a brand wants to reach, and through sell-side platforms, which keep inventories of all possible places where brands can run ads online.

Kroger, for instance, set up Kroger Precision Marketing in 2018 to offer such services. Through it, the supermarket chain sells ad spots on its web properties, such as search engines, cash back pages, or email marketing. Additionally, Kroger sells audiences’ data to demand-side platforms through its Kroger Private Marketplace. To work with sell-side platforms, Kroger also launched an alliance with Magnite to channel shopper data for ads on TV streaming services. Albertsons began to offer such services last year when it launched Albertsons Media Collective. 

Retail media is often portrayed by marketers as “an alternative” to the traditional services offered by the main two ad tech incumbents, Google and Facebook. And indeed, much of the new business is more or less a direct result of new data privacy laws in Europe and the U.S. designed to curtail an ad business model based on pervasive user tracking across the web. One result is that Apple last year started blocking third-party tracking technology on apps, and that Google will soon block its ad competitors’ ability to track users on the Chrome browser. Both actions increase the value of the first-party data collected by retailers like Kroger and Albertsons. 

OMI reporter Luke Goldstein on Thursday published an article in the Washington Monthly highlighting the dangerous impact of Elon Musk’s ownership of both the Starlink broadband satellite system and the communications platform Twitter. He wrote: “If federal regulators had done their job, we would never have gotten to the point where one fickle titan has so much unfettered power. Since 2018, for example, the Federal Communications Commission has routinely approved Musk’s requests to build a constellation of satellites with little oversight … If that oversight weren’t lax enough, Musk has benefited from enormous federal subsidies.”

Also, last Thursday Open Markets issued a statement calling on law enforcers to block and/or closely regulate Musk’s takeover of Twitter.  Open Markets wrote: “One way law enforcers can move swiftly to block Musk’s takeover of Twitter is to focus on his existing ownership of Starlink. As its use in Ukraine demonstrates, Starlink has become one the most important communications platforms in the world.”

The Open Markets Institute issued a statement declaring that “antitrust enforcement is back” after a federal judge blocked the takeover by Bertelsmann corporation (which owns Penguin Random House) of Simon & Schuster. OMI had warned the merger could threaten free speech in a letter sent last year to the Justice Department. The success builds on Open Markets’ more than decade-long effort to protect authors and journalists from concentration of power by middleman platforms, publishers, and printers. This includes the first article warning about the political effects of Amazon’s concentration of power over publishers, in Harper’s in February 2012. And it includes pioneering the case that led to the DOJ successfully blocking a merger of the number one and number two printers of books and magazines, in 2019.

This election cycle has made scholars and poll watchers focus on the impact of the "Big Lie" in the public discourse. Amplified on large social media networks, the unsubstantiated claim that President Joe Biden did not win legitimately win the 2020 elections thrives in a media environment mediated by Big Tech.

For its Clearly Speaking series, Open Markets Institute spoke to media scholar Shannon McGregor, assistant professor at the School of Journalism and Media at UNC Chapel Hill and a senior researcher with the Center for Information Technology and Public Life, to offer insights on disinformation, algorithmic adjustments, and the role of antitrust enforcement in reducing Big Tech's harms to our media environment. 

Read our full interview here.

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