Kroger May Be Overcharging You—Here’s What to Know

Whether it’s because of tariffs, supply chain issues or just regular inflation, there’s a good chance you’ve been seeing your grocery bill get higher and higher. And according to a new report from Consumer Reports, some customers could be seeing higher prices based on the stores they shop at. 

At Kroger stores and some others owned by Kroger, there have been “widespread errors on price labels” indicating sale prices that don’t ring up at checkout, Consumer Reports alleges. So while a customer may pick up a box of Cheerios that’s marked as being $1 off, they may end up paying full price at checkout.

In his story for Consumer Reports, journalist Derek Kravitz suggests that some sales tags on Kroger shelves are expired, some by 10 days and others by more than 90 days. If a shopper isn’t double checking the dates on shelf price tags, they might think they’re snagging a great deal that turns out to be expired and invalid at checkout.

After getting a tip about the possible erroneous overcharging in Colorado, Consumer Reports, the Guardian and the Food and Environment Reporting Network (FERN), began investigating the claims using secret shoppers. Kroger workers in labor negotiations in Colorado noted the practice and claimed that Kroger was aware of the issue. Allegedly, claims like these have been brought up by state inspectors and Kroger has been involved in several class-action lawsuits regarding pricing errors. The Guardian previously reported on class-action lawsuit payouts regarding erroneous prices at Kroger stores. 

The investigation involved 26 stores over 14 states, plus the District of Columbia, a fairly small sample size of the company’s many stores. According to Consumer Reports, shoppers “found expired sales labels that led to overcharges on more than 150 grocery items”—those items included cereal, instant coffee, some meats and pet food. The average amount of overcharge came out to just over 18%.

Kroger stores include Harris Teeter, Fred Meyer, Fry’s and Ralphs, among others. The Consumer Reports investigation visited locations of all four of those stores, as well as Kroger. You can see detailed information about the locations they shopped in the Consumer Reports article. Kroger representatives have said the investigation is too limited to prove any widespread problems at their stores.

“The Consumer Reports allegations boil down to misinformation, reviewing a handful of discrete issues from billions of daily transactions,” a Kroger spokesperson tells EatingWell. “It in no way reflects the seriousness with which we take our transparent and affordable pricing.” 

The spokesperson also sent us the full response they sent to Consumer Reports, in which they said that “while any error is unacceptable, the characterization of widespread pricing concerns is patently false.” Since Kroger operates more than 2,700 retail stores, the Consumer Reports study surveyed less than 1% of Kroger’s stores.

If you suspect you are unknowingly paying full price for something that should be on sale, you may need to do some double-checking between the receipt and the items in hand. If there is an error with a Kroger product, you can use their “Make it Right” policy to clarify prices, make returns or share concerns about expired sales posted in your local store.