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Merge signed witness

next up are patient and great leader of this committee chairman Durbin thanks Senator kilometer and thank you to all the witnesses I'm sorry I was late there's a roll call on the floor and we're trying to balance things back and forth very interested in this issue but I also want to comment on this hearing you probably noticed a difference in political philosophy coming out in this hearing some of us believe that the so-called ESG environmental concerns concerns for diversity and the like are really part of responsible corporate citizenship and we believe you can be profitable in America and be respectful of your employees regardless of their background and you can also be profitable America and sensitive to with the fact that we are living through climate change and we all have to be part of the solution so there is a difference opinion on this side of the table I'd like to express I'd like to ask Mr Sharma if I can after all of your statements and I've read through them it's pretty clear to me that you don't see any redeeming feature in this merger yes I did not because what the companies are doing today that might be lowering prices what they're doing today what matters is what the structure of the market will be after these companies merge and even if they sell a few stores there it's going to take competition out of the market so prices will go up in fact there's a journey 2012 FTC study which looked at retail mergers in for grocery stores and it said if the market is already concentrated and companies merge prices will go up can also touch on the question of wages by the way you know there's wages and there's a billion dollars which the company's claimed will pass on if if the emerged they've committed Etc but how are these wages set by the companies I mean these are profit maximizing companies and as Kroger States in its 2021 fact book if I might read that out this this is driven by a data analytics research for specific areas to ensure our wages are competitive with the market so if there are a few stores in in an area it would seem to me they would face less competition to hire people so they might actually reduce wages so this is you know it's completely and altered how they actually do business competition does not uh benefit the consumer prices are likely to go up and the elimination of some stores it's debatable as to how many and how soon would mean fewer opportunities to shop which means at least some inconvenience if not more I think of Mr McMullen I think in my hometown of East St Louis Illinois Kroger has been in that area for a long time and I think of the efforts that I try to put in and a lot of join me to...