Tops accused of antitrust - no fear, Kucinich is here

[Jim O'Bryan]

Disgust and Contempt for a phony who has lived off the public dole for all his adult life .

Dennis

I was lying about my age and working in factory in the Flats at the age of 16.

You really have to get a hold of yourself. Are you just saying this to make your friends think you don't vote for Dennis?

Are you in an office inputting this? Anger management. I once chased a guy 32 miles who gave me the finger. I worked through it. I now give up at at the 30 mile mark. That last two was waaaaaaaay over the top.

Just think Democratic rollover, over the Republicans that have used and abused everything they have come in contact with. !0th District Congressman Kucinich becomes a power figure as America realizes 90% of his ideas are gold, the other 10 are good for discussion starters. Solidifying his place in history as one of the finest congressmen ever.

And your point on Topps was? "Stay the course..."

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Shawn

re JOB " never tried to tell me what to believe or who to support " - Is your memory so short or failing that LO OD exchanges of March-April 2006 Ferris - djk escape you ? If so - re-read BEFORE typing such asinine sentences .

Thunk about that.

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[Shawn Juris]

What is Kucinich proposing exactly. I would expect that the local elected officials would be working to fill this void after a major business pulls out. It does raise question about the methods if once a company leaves, we have a politician claiming "anti-trust". Such a business friendly atmosphere around here.
Seems we're a little worse for wear than we were a few months ago when we went round and round about the state of Lakewood in regards to jobs and large employers. Can we form a commission to study the feasibility of maybe someday courting a new business to fill the space?
As for the rantings and mud slinging, let's leave all that for the GOP's ad campaigns.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Shawn

Sanity prevails, thank you. This started with the Giant Eagle/Topps buyout. This left many cities devastated, not just jobs and taxes, but also food supplies. To be honest it does not even affect Lakewood seriously, though loss of jobs do.

The problem here in Lakewood is that Topps owns the property their current store is on. I cannot see them releasing it to another grocery store. However I have heard some interesting ideas.

Ken Warren brings up an interesting point with "Mainstreet" declaring this as a starting point for "downtown."

There is also at least 4 LARGE parcels of land coming up for sale in the next two years. On top of the 4 large parcels that have been for sale since the 90s.

The whole anti-trust thing came from Giant Eagle. They triggered the look when they asked the FTC for a ruling as they thought it might be considered a monopoly. This of course went to congress for thoughts from the Congressman. While Congressman Kucinich was involved because of job loss and Food Security, I doubt at the time he realized the FTC would jump in.

AS always the devil is in the details. Example: The Topps representative said they need some group to buy all 46 locations. That some we left out because they could not meet that criteria. Yet Giant Eagle only purchased 22. 18 for themselves and 4 for Dave's I believe. When the Topps manager said every effort would be made to respect Union contracts, as he introduced each member of a union they all admitted no deal had been made.

So before we kick off another $20,000 1 1/2 week study on property in Lakewood let's take a breath and see what transpires here in Lakewood.

This whole topics hits big on hundreds of different levels. Walmart, family farms, food supply, the Dutch, how food stores even make money, and what is more important to a city? Job? Taxes? Food?

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[TIM CARROLL]

Jim, Can we please stop with the incorrect spelling of Tops! I have know about this company back from almost their begining on Pine Avenue in Niagara Falls, NY and you are insulting the great many people I have known who have worked in the stores (including me) and I am sure Topps Baseball Cards is not liking the negative connotations.

As far as the Anti-trust issue that Kucinich is playing, it will turn out to be nothing because the people of Lakewood and other areas will have choices for their shopping(Marc's, Heinen's and (the evil) Wal Mart). But that won't be determined until after the November 8th.

I do have one question, for those at the meeting at Kucincich's office, did anybody see the October 18, letter that Kucinich was waving around? I would like to know if it was addressed to someone at William Blair & Co, since that is where the expression of interest should have been sent. If it was sent to anyone else, then it wasn't a very serious offer to begin with.

[Kenneth Warren]

Tim:

While I don't know what letter Congressman Kucinich was waving, much less what he might have in his files, if anything, I do have a copy of the letter he distributed from Retail Partners at the meeting. The letter is addressed to him, and simply cites Blair in the body of the text. Whether any confidentiality disclosure requirements or concern of risks from such breach would preclude dissemination of anything else, I cannot say, because I really do not know any of these details. As I noted in another post, I was troubled by this move and felt Retail Partners was spinning the Congressman. But that's simply my impression, based on the event.

Kenneth Warren

[TIM CARROLL]

Ken, If I am understanding you correctly, the letter does not state an expression of interest by Retail Partners was relayed to Tops, Royal Ahold or William Blair & Co., but stating to the Congressman that they were interested in acquiring the stores, but were not successful - Correct?

If that is correct then you thoughts about spinning are right!

[Jim O'Bryan]

Ken, If I am understanding you correctly, the letter does not state an expression of interest by Retail Partners was relayed to Tops, Royal Ahold or William Blair & Co., but stating to the Congressman that they were interested in acquiring the stores, but were not successful - Correct?

If that is correct then you thoughts about spinning are right!

Tim/Ken

Let's get the facts correct here. The letter was sent to Tops, Royal Ahold or William Blair & Co.. Discussion took place. Tops then asked RP to sign a non-disclosure agreement, which according to the Tops was broken when the letter was sent to Congressman Dennis Kucinich's off from someone believed to be at RP. There was actually a little riff going as the Tops representative threatened Congressman Kucinich about being part of breaking a non-disclosure agreement, to which Dennis answered, he ha no knowledge of such an agreement. Meaning he was not breaking anything he did not sign.

While Ken might have missed this, I found it fascinating at how hard Tops was trying to control the fact that there were other buyers out there. This was after the Tops Reps had given a speech on how Giant Eagle was the ONLY group willing to buy.

Again, it was was what said and not said. The Tops rep had repeatedly said. NO ONE WAS WILLING TO PURCHASE ALL THE STORES. This was later retracted to no one willing to buy the stores that could be considered real. in fact during the conversations two others name were mentioned as buyers of at least 10 or more stores. The conflict as I see it two fold, not that any are my or Lakewood's concerns.

1) Was why Tops working so hard to keep the knowledge of other potential buyers from public knowledge?

2) Is/was there an overt act by Giant Eagle to create a monopoly in Northern Ohio? As it was mentioned that the FTC was an ongoing investigation who knows where it ends? In some cities and large areas Giant Eagle has become a monopoly of sorts, but that is the nature of the food business in America.

In the end it was fascinating that Tops would send the Human Resource Manager, possibly thinking it was merely about jobs. When the questions got tough he turned to the group and said, "I am not used to talking to this many people, maybe we could talk in a smaller group." I took that to mean out of the lights of the media, as the HR Rep knew at least everyone in the first three rows.

Tim

I ask you, as you are a good politician. If someone told and the public that there were no other possible buyers, and you knew of three and had proof of one. What would you do? Was it grandstanding or spinning to produce a letter from a group that allowed you to prove your point?

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[Kenneth Warren]

The letter of Jerry Hoffman, Senior Partner, Retail Group Partners, Inc. that was distributed by Congressman Kucinich, is addressed to Congressman Dennis Kucinich. It states:

"...We are prepared and stand ready to enter negotiations immediately....

When discussing our interests with the investment bankers, William Blair and Company, we were told that the deal with Giant Eagle was done and that we could could not negoitate this tansaction. We hope that this is not the case....

....In addition to buying the Tops Markets stores we are also prepared to make an additional investment of $50 million in Ohio to develop vertically integrated food manufacturing capabilities....

"I am sending a copy of this letter to the investment bankers, William Blair and Company and to their client, Royal Ahold, who is the owner of Tops, and put on the record our interest. We look forward to your support in this matter."

These exceprts are substantially what the letter distributed at the meeting states.

Kenneth Warren

[Jim O'Bryan]

The letter of Jerry Hoffman, Senior Partner, Retail Group Partners, Inc. that was distributed by Congressman Kucinich, is addressed to Congressman Dennis Kucinich. ...
Kenneth Warren

Ken

I had given my letter to the employee of Tops who was angry and had not seen any letter.

I have to believe than that it was the Tops rep who also had not seen the letter to the Congressman that was going on about discousre agreements.

Maybe RGP had signed a non-disclosure agreement about the talks, who knows.

Jhanks for the clarification.


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[Charyn Compeau]

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[TIM CARROLL]

Jim,

A good politician, knowing that Tops is a large employer in the area, not just his own district should have made inquiries (by himself or or his staff) as to determine if there was anything that could be done once the selling was public knowledge on July 10th.

A better politician would have acknowledged that in 2002, Tops may be in trouble here in NEO when its was revealed that there accounting irregularities. That would for me have triggered an ongoing discussion with Tops to make sure they continued to be viable or assist them in locating a prospective buyer.

As to the non-disclosure, I find it a little hard to believe that Kucinich was not aware there was one in force. He has been around Mergers & Acquisitions before to know that is one of the first things done after an Expression of Interest is conveyed.

Did Kucinich get set up by Retail Group to force a re-opening of the negotiations -- probably; Is Kucinich playing up to the voters as a "man of the people" - that has been his bread and butter tactic since he ran for Mayor.
I stand by what I said earlier, the anti-trust issue will go away and especially now that Kucinich was made to look bad on the non-disclosure.

Another thought I have had on this deal is that Giant Eagle may have approached Tops to make a deal, since I am sure they knew Tops was struggling to make here and Tops decided to open up the bidding but when the numbers came in, no one was close to the number Giant Eagle was offering. We will never know if this is the case, but it would make sense from Giant Eagle's standpoint.

[Jim O'Bryan]

...Another thought I have had on this deal is that Giant Eagle may have approached Tops to make a deal, since I am sure they knew Tops was struggling to make here and Tops decided to open up the bidding but when the numbers came in, no one was close to the number Giant Eagle was offering. We will never know if this is the case, but it would make sense from Giant Eagle's standpoint.

Tim

You have always been fair and honest with me. I have no doubt that it might have come down exactly as you mentioned, but the known facts would not allow us to believe that.

Is it possible that the Congressman got the email and had 0 knowledge of the non-disclosure agreement? Is it possible that Giant Eagle and Tops wanted to keep this quiet until it was signed? I have no problem believing that. Could of it had been grandstanding, well we both know neither side is capable of that!

But everything Tops did would tell us differently.

I am really not finding fault with any of this, nor trying to make a point. I would have thought that if anybody knew before hand it would be Maple Heights and/or Mayor Tom George. Maple Heights worse case scenario, Lakewood, best case.

As it took place in a public office and I believe they had a stenographer there, maybe we can get the transcript for the Observer.

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