Watching the nearly four-week antitrust trial pitting the state of Colorado against Kroger and Albertsons’ planned megamerger may not have been the most riveting of shows. But lawyers from the state Attorney General’s Office and the corporate parents of King Soopers and Safeway had plenty to say, and took a week longer than planned to make their cases.
Their last chance came Thursday during closing arguments.
“When it comes to defendants’ assurances and promises, watch what they do, not what they say,” said state attorney Arthur Biller, repeating the maxim he used in his opening statement. He went on to summarize Kroger’s creation of a noncompetitive zone of City Markets on the Western Slope, where prices were raised. He questioned how the much-smaller divestiture partner C&S Wholesale Grocer could succeed where Albertsons could not. He pointed to C&S’s history of closing under-performing stores…