We are independent restaurant and bar owners, operators, and workers from across the State of Missouri. Our businesses, and the communities we serve, depend on fair, competitive, and functioning food supply chains.

Missouri’s restaurants are not a small corner of our economy. Eating and drinking places operate 12,486 locations across the state and support 298,000 restaurant and foodservice jobs, making the industry the third-largest private-sector employer in Missouri. These businesses generate roughly $23.5 billion in annual sales and pay about $3.7 billion in taxes here at home. Nine in ten of them are small businesses, and every dollar spent in a Missouri restaurant contributes an estimated $1.81 to the state economy.

Today, those supply chains are already under strain. Food costs are high, margins are razor thin, and too many of us are struggling to stay open. In this environment, competition among suppliers is not a luxury; it’s the difference between staying open and closing for good.

That is why we strongly oppose Sysco’s proposed acquisition of Restaurant Depot.

This is not a routine business deal. Sysco is the largest foodservice distributor in the country, and in March 2026 it announced an agreement to acquire Jetro Restaurant Depot.  We rely on Restaurant Depot, the largest cash-and-carry wholesale supplier that independents rely on as an alternative and most importantly, we rely on the fact that these two channels compete.

When delivery prices rise, we shift to Restaurant Depot. When warehouse prices increase, we lean on delivery. That tension keeps prices in check and is one of the only forms of leverage small, independent businesses have in a supply chain dominated by large corporations. If this merger proceeds, that leverage disappears.

Under unified ownership, there is no longer any reason for these two channels to compete. Instead, they will operate with a single profit motive.. Over time, that means fewer discounts, higher fees, and steadily increasing costs that we cannot pass on without losing customers.

For our businesses, already operating on razor-thin margins, even small cost increases can be the difference between staying open and closing our doors.  But the harm starts well before anyone closes. When a single company controls both delivery and cash-and-carry, the prices we can least avoid go up first: toilet paper, to-go boxes, gloves, foil, cooking oil, the everyday staples. We can't pass those increases on to our guests without losing them, so we cut where we still have a choice  and that almost always means the discretionary purchases: the specialty produce and local proteins we buy directly from Missouri farms and producers. An unavoidable markup on commodities quietly crowds out the local sourcing we'd rather protect, and those farms and makers feel it immediately. 

Missouri is home to roughly 88,000 farms, nearly nine in ten of them family-owned, working an average of about 308 acres each. Independent restaurants are among the most dependable customers these small and mid-sized farms have, precisely because they don't sell into large national distribution systems. When our costs rise, their orders shrink; when we close, those relationships disappear altogether. Either way, local food systems weaken, regional economies shrink, and the supply chain grows less resilient.

This merger threatens the stability of the food system itself.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Restaurant Depot served as a critical backup when traditional delivery systems were overwhelmed. Because it operated independently, it provided an alternative way to access food and stay open. If absorbed into Sysco, that independence is lost. A single disruption be it a cyberattack, labor issue, or supply shock,  would now impact both our delivery and warehouse purchasing options, with no fallback. This level of fragility should concern anyone responsible for protecting the public interest.

We believe this merger clearly raises concerns that antitrust law is meant to address. Under Section 7 of the Clayton Act, mergers that may substantially lessen competition or tend toward monopoly must be blocked. The Federal Trade Commission has applied this standard to Sysco once before, and we urge the Commission to do so again.

The same logic applies here. This merger does not just remove a competitor; it eliminates the only meaningful pricing check that independent restaurants have, replacing competing supply channels with a single dominant player.

We are not asking for special treatment. We are asking for a fair market: the ability to negotiate, to choose, and to operate without being subject to unchecked pricing power from a single supplier.

Independent restaurants and bars are small businesses. In Missouri, we employ hundreds of thousands of people, support local farms and producers, and serve as gathering places in communities across the state. When we close, those communities lose more than a place to eat they lose jobs, culture, and economic stability.

For all of these reasons, we, the undersigned Missourians, ask for your support in urging the Federal Trade Commission to stop this merger.