Albertsons kills rural grocers with land use restrictions

Land-use restrictions and grocery monopolies

• Core issue: big grocers use deed covenants and long-term leases on former store sites to block competitors, especially in small or geographically constrained towns.
• This raises barriers to entry because opening in an existing grocery box is far cheaper than greenfield construction.
• Some note similar practices in Canada and by other chains.

Free market vs government enforcement

• One camp says this is the free market: two private parties freely agree to land-use restrictions; state intervention would be “meddling.”
• Others counter that “free market” implies competitive entry; privately imposed use restrictions backed by state coercion undermine that.
• Debate over whether “using” government includes relying on contract enforcement and lax antitrust.

Legality and antitrust

• Several argue many such covenants are already illegal restraints of trade; weak enforcement and high litigation costs let them persist.
• Examples cited where a state AG fined a grocer for such a covenant and a federal case where a producer buying/closing rivals lost on antitrust grounds.
• Some stress courts are reluctant to void contracts and antitrust is under-enforced.

HOAs, deed covenants, and property rights

• Strong analogy drawn between corporate deed restrictions and HOAs as “pseudo-governments” constraining future owners.
• Long subthread on HOAs: powers often exceeding what cities could legally do, inconsistent quality of governance, and lack of real exit where HOAs are ubiquitous.
• Others defend HOAs as voluntary, property-value-preserving associations, though “voluntary” is contested.

Housing, zoning, and NIMBY parallels

• Many link this to restrictive residential zoning, NIMBY politics, and consolidation in homebuilding.
• Dispute over whether criticizing grocery covenants while downplaying zoning’s role in housing is inconsistent.
• Some argue local democratic control over zoning excludes would-be residents and entrenches incumbents.

Capitalism, “late stage” and market failure

• Some see this as capitalism functioning as designed: firms will use any legal/gray tool to suppress competition.
• Others distinguish “capitalism” from regulatory capture or argue monopolies require strong states.
• General agreement that unregulated markets tend toward concentration, hence the need for robust antitrust.

Proposed remedies

• Ideas include: outright bans on anti-competitive deed covenants, mandatory sunsets, making such clauses presumptively unenforceable, or taxing the value of restrictive rights.
• Some prefer case-by-case AG action; others want broader structural reform.