Last August, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bob Casey launched an investigation into allegations of surge pricing at Kroger. Kroger uses digital price tags in approximately 500 of their US stores. Their reasoning was to “save labor costs” which means they didn’t want to pay an employee to do it. The controversy was that Kroger could potentially use the digital price tags to adjust the cost of certain items based on factors like time of day, demand, weather, etc. I know; it’s very surprising that a big company would try to take advantage of its customers.
Last year, Walmart was hit with a class action suit when a man discovered stores in at least six states were charging 10-15% more than the sticker price on the shelf. Someone at Kroger must have heard about that and went, “Hold my beer” because the company is now being investigated by several states for checkout prices as high as 60% more than the price on the shelf.
Derek and Allison Hadfield became more and more fed up whenever they shopped for their family of four at their local Kroger grocery in Belpre, Ohio, a town of about 6,600 across the Ohio River from West Virginia. When they tried to save money by buying items on sale, they said, many of the discounts vanished when Kroger rang up their carts at checkout. Personal pizzas posted as on sale for $1 a piece rang up for $1.25 each. An 8oz jar of minced garlic listed at the low price of $2.49 cost $3.99 at checkout – a 60% jump.
“Almost every single time I go in the store, the listed price of an item is NOT what rings up at the register,” Allison Hadfield, who home-schools the couple’s two children, wrote in December in a complaint to Ohio’s attorney general. “I want Kroger to stop screwing over people especially when they are the only store in town!”
The family’s experiences are not an isolated problem involving a single store, an investigation of the supermarket giant’s pricing practices by the Guardian US, Consumer Reports and the Food & Environment Reporting Network has found. Kroger stores in multiple states, the investigation has revealed, show a pattern of overcharging customers by frequently listing expired sale prices on the shelves and then ringing up the regular prices at checkout – a practice that adds additional burdens on to American families already struggling under the weight of the soaring costs for eggs, meat and other groceries.
The investigation drew on “secret shopper” tests in more than a dozen states by the Guardian and its partners as well as a separate series of tests by union grocery workers in Colorado. The investigation also drew on internal corporate documents, court records, complaints to government authorities and interviews with customers, workers and union officials.
The shopping tests by the media partners found expired tags that resulted in overcharges in 14 of the 26 stores reviewed in Washington DC and 14 states, including Arizona, Michigan, Oregon, Virginia and Ohio. The tests in March, April and May identified more than 150 items with expired sale tags for which Kroger was charging more than the sale price – producing average overcharges of about $1.70 per item, an 18% markup over the discount price.
On average, the expired discount tags the tests analyzed were about two weeks out of date, suggesting that thousands of customers ended up paying more for what they likely thought were discounted items.
At times, Kroger’s sale tags don’t clearly disclose that a discount offer has ended. In some instances expiration dates are listed in small print and in others they are noted in a corporate code that is not clear to people who are not Kroger employees. Some customers catch the problem at checkout or when they go over their receipts, but workers and union officials said many busy shoppers don’t notice the overcharges.
“It really makes me feel bad because some of them are on fixed incomes and they’re older. They’re not going to pay attention,” said Joy Alexander, who works as a scan coordinator at a Kroger-owned King Soopers store in suburban Denver. “They think that when they took it off the shelf, it was $2.50. They don’t know that they’re paying $3.75 for that one item.”
Kroger, the nation’s second largest grocery retailer behind Walmart, is headquartered in Cincinnati and operates more than 2,700 stores in 35 states under a variety of names, including King Soopers, Harris Teeter, Ralphs, Fry’s Food and Drug, and others.
In a statement, Kroger said the price tag errors identified by the news organizations represented “a few dozen examples across several years out of billions of customer transactions annually”.
“While any error is unacceptable, the characterization of widespread pricing concerns is patently false,” the statement said.
Kroger did not provide detailed answers to most of the media partners’ questions about its pricing practices. The statement said the company is “committed to affordable and accurate pricing” and that it regularly conducts price checks that review “millions of items weekly to ensure our shelf prices are accurate”.
With food costs soaring from the grocery aisle to the drive-through window, Americans are spending a greater portion of their income to eat than they have in decades. US food prices climbed nearly 24% from 2020 to 2024, leaving many Americans feeling angry, anxious or dejected about their trips to the supermarket.
Shame on Kroger for doing this. It’s especially heinous when they’re the only store in town and people don’t have any other options. Even if they aren’t the only option, Kroger probably figures they can get away with doing this because people aren’t paying attention. It’s only after they look at the receipt that they may notice something is off. It’s both appalling and ballsy to do this during a time when the cost of groceries is a huge issue. Beyond their flagship stores, Kroger owns Ralph’s, Harris Teeter, Dillion’s, and more. Even if you’re not shopping at one of their stores, here’s your reminder to always check your receipts!
The full article is much longer than what I excerpted, but it’s really worth the read. The states that are currently investigating or taking action against Kroger are Ohio, Colorado, California, Illinois, and Michigan. They recently settled a lawsuit with the state of Utah, but have had complaints made against them in other states. For example, someone in Arlington, Texas reported that price tags at their local Kroger were five years out of date. Companies shouldn’t be allowed to do this. At what point will there be an actual reckoning?
I think Publix is doing this too. I bought Roma tomatoes. The price was $1.39 a pound and it rang up to 2.14 a pound. I bought a happy graduation card that was clearly marked as .99 and rang up to $4.59. I was annoyed but I didn’t bother to go back. I think they are doing this because of the tariffs. They don’t want people to see the true costs.
This isn’t because of tariffs — it’s been going on for years.
Though I’m sure the uncertainty and chaos caused by Felon47’s millions of lies about, and ping-ponging application of tariffs won’t help.
I take pics of the prices as I go. Then I argue. I’m in CO and it’s been ridiculous for a long long time. Just blatant.
I am that person who will say hey, wait a minute that’s not what the tag says & hold up the checkout line while they send somebody to go check. I have that kind of memory for numbers (and resent like hell remarks like, ‘especially older people’–we’re not addled, or childlike!), but I was thinking it would be wise for folks to take pictures, at least of sale prices.
I always check my receipts. Once I put my groceries in the car, I sit for a few minutes to check my receipts. I have caught somethings and gone back inside for the adjustment. When possible my suggestion is to check your receipt before going home and unloading your grocery. It is much easier if possible to do it in the parking lot before leaving. I shop on the base, Publix and do Walmart curbside pickup for most soft goods. I go to Trader Joe’s for speciality items. And I get my bottled water from Costco.
That’s something I learned from my mom, check your receipt before leaving the store, or at the very latest once you get to your car. I guess they’re figuring most people won’t any more? I think something has changed since the scanning of bar codes happened. People are just assuming those are more accurate than when checkers actually punched the numbers on a register.
Here’s a true Kroger story. One morning while self checking myself out at Kroger I heard a commotion. When asking a Kroger employee what was happening. The story had apprehended and were holding the thief for the police, I imagine. The U-Scan assistant then shared further details. A customer/thief in produce had wanted quality strawberries and was opening the packaged strawberries and putting descent strawberries in one container so she could purchase a quality container of strawberries. Now this is something I had never done. But theft? The fix is in. These stores mean to sell you crap and expect you to accept it with a smile.
Wow, I’ve never considered doing that with strawberries, but I DO do that with those bags of grapes. I dump out all the singletons and pull off clearly bad ones because grapes are hella expensive. It is very annoying that they sell some fruit this way
Since the grapes are sold by the pound that’s fine (and I do that, too), but strawberries are usually sold by the quart so that’s a bit different. But still–theft? They’re bothering the police with that??
I do this with strawberries at Trader Joe’s and at Metropolitan Market. I used to do it at Winn Dixie when I lived on the East Coast. No one has ever approached me about it. I’m not sure what I would say if they did…
Deceptive for sale signs are bad enough, ‘up to 60% off’, but this is straight up theft.
Or, as I have experienced at my local Kroger in KY, “sale” prices on the digital price tags that are invalid. The QR codes you are supposed to scan just don’t exist. It’s super sketchy, and even our SUPER-GOP Attorney General is running an investigation.
That’s on top of their record of trying to sell expired products, as well. And it’s not like they’re items from the back of a shelf. This is fronted, newly-stocked merch that is sometimes up to a month out of date. Don’t forget to check your pantry items, folks!
It should be noted that Elaine Chao, Mitch McConnell’s wife & former Trump cabinet secretary [of Transportation] remains on Kroger’s Board of Directors
Prepackaged produce, meat, poultry and fish (the kind sold by a specific weight per package)– I now always weigh them to see that they are the weight they’re being sold for. Examples: 250 grams of mushrooms, 400 g strawberries, 200 g salmon, etc,… even though these items are wrapped in plastic, they not entirely infrequently are slightly to distinctly lighter. Unfortunately, you cannot fight the store on that here, but you can make sure you are not funding them on purpose.
Edit–I need to check the dynamic pricing. I just figured I’d mention another way stores pick your pocket without you noticing.
Wow, I feel so naive. I will totally start checking my receipts.
Also, I don’t have Kroger near me, but in places that have Kroger, it seems like Kroger IS the only place you can go, unless there might be a trader joes or something like that, which I have always thought was weird.
Kroger has been buying other grocery chains for years, creating a near-monopoly, so they feel they can do whatever they want.
I usually have some weird annoying thing happen every time I go to a Kroger. Now I know to check my receipts too. Food Lion is the only store I routinely go inside to shop for groceries. They’re owned by a company based in the Netherlands, I haven’t heard a bad word about them, and they don’t move their entire f’ing store around trying to confuse and upsell people.
We have a chain owned by Kroger in Chicago called Mariano’s and they are shady af, not just with prices but with routinely selling food, including meat, way past its expiration date. I think these places just count on most people not noticing. I won’t set foot in one. Luckily we have lots of other options. I feel for the people who don’t.
Oooof. Mariano’s is a disaster. I would literally go 20 minutes out of my way to shop at the fabulous Jewel-Osco at Ashland-Wellington when I lived up there. Toting groceries on public transit is not fun, but when it comes down to safety of the food? Worth it.
Dancing on the grave of Dominick’s.
I think this happened to me the other day! I rarely shop at the Kroger-owned stores near us because they’re unpleasant, but I had to run in for two items. The total was more than I was expecting based on the listed prices, but I figured I was just remembering wrong. I will be sure to pay more attention now!
@rosie as long as krogers owners vote and donate rethuglican, there will be no reckoning. Or until the huge companies controlling food get in on the lawsuit.
I noticed stores first doing this during lockdown. That’s why I stopped ordering online and went into the stores masked up and wearing gloves to do the shop myself.
Not only were they overcharging, they were ‘forgetting’ things like meat I paid for but never got. Had to haul all the bags back inside to prove to staff I wasn’t lying.
They did the same thing around sale items. I always checked the ‘no substitutions’ so i would get the brand name item that was on sale. Instead I’d get bags full of grocery brand substitutes that weren’t on sale and cost more.
If I went straight back into the store I’d find plenty of the brand name items available. The store was deliberately substituting their own products and lying about availability.
That’s why I still stand in line and wait for the one cashier instead of using self check. I watch the prices as they ring up and make sure I get the sale price on everything. Yes time is money but none of us can afford not to do this.
I hate shopping in person, but at some supermarkets I do exactly what you do. I have numerous allergies, so I always say “NO SUBSTITUTIONS” for every single item and it ticked me off to no end to always be getting substitions that I could not even handle(!) for fear of ending up in hospital – and exorbitantly expensive substitutions as well. So I go in and make sure that I get the brands that I want and in the quantities I want and at the price I want. And I’ve learnt to always be on the lookout for price-gouging at the till. The most recent case was a whopping 3.99 added to the sticker price of a pack of chicken thigh fillets. What’s worse, at some point in the last few months, they had swapped the price of the thigh fillets with the breast fillets, making the latter much cheaper, and because they are now side by side, most people would not notice. Shady practices all round. It happens all over the world. We must be vigilant, because every little counts.
If I suspect that an item has been priced shadily or will be marked up at check-out, I keep it separate and ask the checkout person to scan it and tell me what it costs before deciding whether or not I’ll keep it. If it is incorrect then I tell them what the shelf price was, and if they look confused then I say, “No, thank you, I’ll leave that”. Keeps them on their toes, I like to think.
Dollar general does this, too. I always catch it and make the manager give me the price stated on the shelf
One of the reasons I buy what I can at Costco is that this NEVER happens with them. Safeway, Fred Meyer (Kroger), they all pull this shit with the expired tags and wrong prices. Don’t get me started on how often their damn apps don’t work. But Costco? You can trust that everything rings up the way it should, bless them.
I don’t know what the rules/laws are in in different countries but at two of the UK supermarkets I go to I use a self-scan as you go round the shop option and a couple of times I noticed that what came up on my screen was a higher price than the one listed on the shelf, both times I queried it and paid the lower (shelf) price.
Fight for your consumer rights!
Canadian here, and it’s the same: price rings up higher at the cash register than flagged on the shelf; product past the BB date and I mean really past!; product with mould on it; things packaged in threes or more and you only want one, such as zucchini shrink wrapped in a three pack, or avocados only sold in a net bag of 10; points not credited.
One particularly egregious thing I have seen from time to time is for something to jump in price say $2-$4 , remain at that price for a few days, and then is on sale for what it used to cost before.
Another thing I have seen which was claimed to be a mistake was saying that certain produce was organic but it had a 4XXX code which is not – organic is 9XXXX. It’s an industry standard.
To be fair to grocery stores, we do have some locally that will reduce the price on items approaching the BB date so they can get rid of them. They will also offer a good BOGO.
I watch everything on the cash register to make sure that the price is ringing up what I expect. I have no problem holding up the line as so far, I have been right every time. We have self check out in some stores, and again and I watch every single item.
This used to happen to me at my neighborhood Randalls, which is why I switched to HEB. So far I am satisfied with HEB but I had better keep an eye on that too. It’s often (usually?) just random computer or human error and not a systemic scam, of course. I’m glad people caught Kroger in the act and called them out on it. Hopefully they pay the price and it keeps everyone on their toes.
It’s like the books at Target. Every time I buy a book in the store, I use the app to check the online price and sometimes the book rings up as $5-$6 or more higher than what’s advertised online. The cashier will adjust the price, but you have to ask every time.
Yes! This has happened to us with toys at Christmas time. The online price will be less money than the in-store price.
I shop at the Harris Teeter that is walking distance from me and I have noticed since the pandemic that their sales tag aren’t always up to date. You can it has been ripped off from the last time but there is no new sales price tag even though the sales circular is advertising the product as being on sale this week. So, I always watch the register like a hawk.
I worked at Kroger when they their R&D division launched surge pricing through something called Project Sunrise I believe? It was something they were pushing after Amazon launched that “smart store” (that turned out to be fake). But yeah, I thought it was well known Kroger was doing surge pricing. They didn’t hide it at work.
Having worked as an assistant scan coordinator for another grocery retailer some wrong shelf pricing is due to lack of staffing. The store that I worked in had over 55,000 items. There were not just weekly sale price changes but daily price changes with which we were responsible. There were two of us. I was part time. Add in department managers that expected us to scan, print, and relabel their entire departments on a monthly basis. Plus, we had price audits to help insure scan integrity. And EVERY SINGLE SUNDAY, I had to audit the produce department for prices and countries of origin. HOWEVER, first and foremost before putting out new sale shelf labels-we with the assistance of idle cashiers-went through the entire store to remove the expiring tags. This is all a manual process. And, yes, tags get missed. But with Kroger this is habitual. I have personally told the service desk that something that I purchased had the wrong price week after week until it was corrected. And I made sure to mention it in the surveys at the bottom of the receipt! Take the surveys y’all! They do get read!
It is VERY good to know that they read the surveys. Thank you!!
F Kroger. They tried to hold customers hostage by announcing they would lower grocery prices if their Albertsons merger was approved. HA, it wasn’t.
Ove the past year or two, they added Neil Young music and I think Earth Wind & Fire to their TV commercials. That had to cost a fortune. I see where they are trying to recoup that cost. If I want to pay Publix prices, I’ll shop at Publix. I am lucky to have Aldi in my community.
I love these comments & applaud everyone fighting back. Please know those of us in line behind you while you’re questioning prices aren’t thinking “Hey, speed it up!” but rather “Good for you! Don’t let them cheat you.”