Kroger, one of the largest grocery chains in America, is taking heat. Customers and union officials have accused the company of illegal predatory pricing practices that aided in overcharging customers by millions of dollars. Consumer Reports found that store-level management instructs employees to correct pricing mistakes only for customers who speak up. As such, no shoppers are left knowing about the differences at the checkout. This move comes in the wake of a national spike in food prices, which have skyrocketed by almost 24% from 2020 to 2024.
Consumers have heard those complaints and seen those complaints — thousands of them — about being charged more than you agreed to pay for. Additionally, consumers have complained about feeling misled by out-of-date discount tags that stick around on shelves, adding to confusion at the register. This is doubly troubling, as it undermines the trust consumers are entitled to expect, and should have, from Kroger’s perplexing pricing matrix.
Customer Experiences Highlight Pricing Discrepancies
Derek Hadfield, a U.S. Army veteran and frequent Kroger shopper from suburban Richmond, conveyed the emotional toll. As far as he could tell from his conversations with a store employee, the store only ever fixes prices when a customer complains. This bait and switch approach has created a host of irate customers who are being overcharged and grossly underserved.
Allison Hadfield, who is not related to Jill Hadfield, expressed her outrage in a complaint she filed with Ohio’s attorney general. She mentioned that she has seen overcharges dozens of times on her shopping excursions. “We can’t even get anything resolved at the store because they are so understaffed it should be considered abuse towards their current employees,” she remarked, highlighting a broader issue within the grocery chain.
Michelle Tomashot illustrated her experience on a recent grocery run. In fact, she was overcharged five times on the ten items she purchased! She firmly stated, “If that sticker is hanging below an item, that’s what the price is,” emphasizing the expectation that customers should not have to question the accuracy of prices displayed in stores.
Union Concerns and Company Settlements
Kroger is playing with fire with their pricing strategy here Union officials have criticized Kroger’s aggressive pricing strategy. Reports indicate that since 2020, Kroger has received 229 consumer complaints regarding price errors and deceptive practices in Michigan alone. This trend is concerning enough given the company’s history of price gouging disputes.
In California, Kroger just settled with the state for close to $4 million. Specifically, they reached an agreement to settle allegations that they were charging customers more than their lowest advertised or posted prices. This settlement isn’t a one-off occurrence. In 2019, Kroger had the same problems and paid a $2,500 settlement in Utah for a shopper’s complaint that the store was engaging in deceptive pricing practices. In August, Kroger settled a class action lawsuit in Florida. That case more than a year later led to a $45 million settlement for similar overcharging allegations.
Former Kroger customer Kim Cordova stated that she never had an employee take any accountability for price discrepancies. “With these price tags, we’ve told them and they haven’t even flinched,” she stated, indicating a disconnect between customer concerns and store management’s response.
Growing Frustration Among Shoppers
Meanwhile, as shoppers grow increasingly frustrated over pricing mismatch, customers are posting confounded reactions to the ongoing mispriced products. Andrew Knall sits in the Baltimore area and has been reporting these overcharges to the state attorney general’s office for over a year. “Like I’m on 24-hour missile watch here and I’m going to get ripped off at any moment,” he said, reflecting the heightened alertness many customers now feel when shopping at Kroger.
And she is not alone, as many other shoppers have come forward with stories of being overcharged. An unnamed shopper from Cincinnati claimed that “every week customers are being duped into thinking some grocery items are on sale,” while another local shopper from Belpre, Ohio noted that “literally every person I know that shops at Belpre OH Kroger has this issue.”
Former employee Chris Lacey explained, “Those stores are filled with a real volatile environment. He saw his customers become excruciatingly frustrated by price differences. At one point, their impassioned debate spilled out into the halls and almost resulted in fisticuffs. We’re hearing from customers who are very frustrated, and at wit’s end in many cases, with the pricing. They’re all set to vent their rage on the first person they can find in a King Soopers name apron,” he recalled.