Pedestrian counts show major impacts along Golden’s Washington Avenue Locals fear Kroger-Albertsons merger will have negative impact

BY CORINNE WESTEMAN CWESTEMAN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Golden’s Safeway is a staple for local shoppers.

People walk there from the surrounding neighborhood and the nearby Colorado School of Mines campus. About 80 employees work there, handling everything from lifesaving prescriptions to birthday cakes, according to said Tom Olson, a sevenyear employee at Golden’s Safeway. But, if Safeway and King Soopers’ parent companies merge, Golden’s Safeway could close, leaving those who rely on it adrift.

Many local employees and shoppers believe the proposed merger would hurt Coloradans by eliminating jobs, reducing competition, raising prices and creating food deserts.

“It’s going to get worse,” Olson said. “ … When you take away competition, prices go up, and you lose jobs and opportunities.”

BY CORINNE WESTEMAN CWESTEMAN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Anyone who’s visited downtown Golden in the summertime knows there are hundreds of pedestrians crossing the streets.

Now, city o cials have an exact number.

A pedestrian count last summer showed there were 1,600 pedestrians crossing at 12th Street and Washington Avenue for an hour around noon Saturday, June 11. And that day was a yellow ag day on Clear Creek, tra c engineer John Hausman said, so July numbers would likely be even more. Hausman, who’s been a traf- c engineer for 20 years, said he’s never seen such high pedestrian volumes unless it was related to an event.

In general, he noted how the June 11 pedestrian counts were double that of a summer weekday at the same time of day.

Hausman, a consultant with Muller Engineering, and city sta

On April 24, Golden and Lakewoodarea shoppers and grocery store employees met with Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser about the proposed Kroger-Albertsons merger, urging Weiser to do everything he could to stop it.

Last fall, Albertsons announced it was considering a $25 billion takeover bid from Kroger. e companies plan to nalize the merger in early 2024, if

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