Ralphs’ Takeover Plan Is Distasteful to Studio City Group

A group of southeast Valley residents is protesting Ralphs Grocery Co.’s newest acquisition plans, saying the chain’s growing dominance of their neighborhood is unwelcome and a little unnerving.

“Studio City is being taken over by Ralphs,” said Tony Lucente, president of the Studio City Residents Assn. The 2,000-member group wrote a letter of complaint to state Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren this week, seeking to block the proposed merger between Ralphs and Hughes Family Markets. The group says the deal would further erode supermarket competition in their Valley neighborhoods.

There are Ralphs stores every few miles on Ventura Boulevard, including stores at Laurel Canyon Boulevard in Studio City and Hazeltine Avenue in Sherman Oaks and at Coldwater Canyon Avenue and Magnolia Boulevard in North Hollywood.

A second Studio City store will soon open at Vineland Avenue and Ventura, and the Laurel Canyon store is expanding.

And last month, Ralphs, which is the regional sales leader, announced it would merge with Hughes Family Markets in a deal awaiting approval by state and federal regulators. That means Studio City’s only Hughes at Coldwater Canyon and Ventura Boulevard is slated to become another Ralphs.

That’s too many, said Lucente. “Antitrust laws are on the books to protect citizens from the exact type of corporate dominance we are now witnessing,” he wrote in the complaint letter to the state attorney general.

The residents’ group is also seeking to limit the size of the proposed Ralphs on Vineland. But Lucente said the monopoly controversy is not related.

Concerned residents include Rose Engel of Sherman Oaks, who worries that prices will rise due to a lack of competition.

Engel, who views shopping as a ritual rather than a chore, has tallied five Ralphs or soon-to-be Ralphs close to her home. She’s the type of shopper who keeps close tabs on the price of persimmons.

Having a choice of stores, she said, is a privilege she holds dear. “I am very upset by this,” she said.

Matt Ross, spokesman for the state attorney general, said agency policy barred him from discussing any complaints about the proposed merger.

In some cases, he said, regulators may address these complaints by ordering merging companies to sell some stores to prevent monopolies. “We want to make sure there is a competitive market out there, not just statewide, but in local communities,” Ross said.

The Ralphs-Hughes deal follows a spate of consolidation in the supermarket business: Yucaipa Cos., owner of Alpha Beta, Boys and Viva, acquired Ralphs in 1995. Safeway Inc. acquired Vons in December 1996. Seattle-based Quality Food Centers acquired Hughes last year.

The deals are touted as cost-cutting moves that allow companies to offer lower prices. “This will benefit consumers,” said Ralphs spokesman Terry O’Neil.

But Sylvia Weishaus, a psychologist and resident of Studio City, believes the opposite will happen. “Ralphs will have a total monopoly on this part of the city,” she said. “Everyone I know is upset by this.”

Weishaus says she shops at Hughes because prices are low and lines short. At Ralphs, however, “it doesn’t matter when you go in,” she said. “If it’s the middle of the night, they will have one cashier and there will be seven people in line. If it is a crowded hour, like after work, they will have all the cashiers, and there will be seven people in all the lines.”

Said Phyllis Sarto of Valley Village, another merger opponent: “My friends, most everybody, they are Hughes-y kind of people.” She fears that once Hughes is converted to Ralphs, she will no longer be able to find some of the Passover products that Hughes carries--a salient worry for this grandmother who is publishing a cookbook of her legendary recipes to pass on to her grandchildren.

Lucente said the few alternatives for those wary of Ralphs are either inconvenient--including the Lucky store at Magnolia Boulevard and Laurel Canyon in North Hollywood or the Vons in Sherman Oaks--or more expensive, such as Gelson’s.

“Suffice to say, the community would like to have more choices,” he said.