Today we begin the New Year with an extended conversation with Rodney McMullen, the chairman and CEO of The Kroger Company. Naturally, much of our conversation focuses on the proposed $24.6 billion acquisition by Kroger of Albertsons … but beyond the nuts and bolts of the deal and its implications, I wanted to get a sense of how the merger will impact the pace of innovation at both companies now, and at the combined company - which will be a behemoth by almost any measure - once the deal is approved. Plus, I wanted to know how he thinks the supermarket industry will be transformed or will evolve over the next five years, and why a Kroger-Albertsons combination will be better positioned to serve a transformed consumer.
