Nearly two years ago, grocery chains Kroger and Albertsons announced their plans to combine in what would be the country’s largest-ever supermarket merger. The path to closing the proposed deal hasn’t exactly been smooth, and it recently faced its most noteworthy challenge yet in a showdown with the FTC in federal court in the District of Oregon.

The highly anticipated hearings on the government’s request for preliminary injunction to block the merger was held before Judge Adrienne Nelson of the US District Court, spanning just over three weeks before wrapping up on September 17. Defending the deal has proven to be an “uphill battle” for Kroger and Albertsons, Arindam Kar, an antitrust attorney at law firm Polsinelli, told Retail Brew, and the FTC brought a “very strong case” against the merger.

Here’s the major takeaways from the trial, and what’s next for the ongoing battle.

Keep reading here.—EC

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Bain & Company’s holiday forecast predicts 3% growth in retail sales this year, which is well below the 10-year average of 5.2% and down from last year’s 4.2%, but the recent Federal Reserve rate cut could give consumers a boost in the coming months.

The report anticipates a sizable gap between online and in-store sales, predicting a nearly flat rate of 0.5% year over year growth for in-store sales—the lowest since the Great Recession—compared to a 9.5% increase for non-store sales.

Keep reading here.—AV

The holiday forecasts keep rolling in. JLL Partners dropped its projections for the coming sales season today, hot on the heels of Bain & Company’s and Deloitte’s reports, both of which foresee a pullback in spending. We'll see what JLL is thinking on Thursday.

Here’s what else is going on in retail this week:

In earnings: Costco does things its own way, and that includes earnings reports. The membership club will report its latest quarterly results on Thursday, weeks after big box rivals such as Target, Walmart, and BJ’s. The company had a blockbuster previous quarter, beating expectations across every major metric. It also reports sales on a monthly basis, and its latest numbers showed sales increasing 7.1% year over year in August.

Keep reading here.—AV

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