Albertsons: When Markets are not so Super.. Clean up in Aisle 3!

Research evidence excerpt

Albertsons: When Markets are not so Super.. Clean up in Aisle 3!

J P M O R G A N North America Credit Research

23 July 2026

Underweight

Albertsons ACI

When Markets are not so Super. . . Clean up in Aisle 3! Moody's:S&P: Ba1BB+ Outlook:Outlook: STABLESTABLE

The above agency ratings are at the corporate level

North America Corporate Credit -

Consumer, Retailing, and Food &

Beverage

Carla Casella, CFA AC

(1-212) 270-6798

carla.casella@jpmorgan.com

Albertsons (ACI) posted a bit of a mess in 3 aisles today: 1) weaker than Yaakov Musheyev

expected 1Q gross margins coupled with more share buybacks (increased debt), 2) (1-212) 834 5865

reduced FY26 guidance (revenue and adj EBITDA margins), and 3) CFO Sharon yaakov.a.musheyev@jpmorgan.com

McCollam is retiring later this year. We think the clean up of these 3 items will take Morgan Morrissey

a few quarters to play out and therefore we remain Underweight. The upside risk (1-212) 834-2383

morgan.morrissey@jpmorgan.com

to our rating is a shift in the markets that drives a flight to quality double-B credits. J.P. Morgan Securities LLC

Supermarkets are not so super these days in a macro environment in which the

lower-income consumer remains highly value-focused and the largest US food

retailer, Walmart (WMT - N), remains focused on offering that consumer value.

Discretionary spending is trending better than non-discretionary, with

supermarkets one of the worst performing categories year-to-date from Chase Card

Data (table below from Rick Shane’s Chase Spending Data: Updated Through July

15, 2026 ) and as one of the fastest decelerating categories in retail sales from the

Census Bureau (June +0.9% vs May +1.9%, for a 1.02% decelerating trend).

We’ve been calling out “fun-flation” as a way to explain the shift consumers are