Kroger customers overcharged for items on sale, Consumer Reports finds

Kroger shoppers might be paying more at checkout than they bargained for.

A new investigation found price tag errors at the supermarket giant's stores leading to customers being overcharged on many items marked as discounted or on sale. Expired discount tags were found on everyday products ranging from Cheerios cereal to Nescafé instant coffee, according to an investigation by Consumer Reports, The Guardian and the Food & Environment Reporting Network (FERN).

The probe stems from allegations made by Kroger employees in Colorado who are currently in labor negotiations with the supermarket chain.

"People should pay the price that is being advertised, that's the law," Edgar Dworsky, a consumer advocate and former assistant attorney general in Massachusetts, who runs the Consumer World website, told Consumer Reports. "The issue here is that shoppers can't rely on the shelf price being accurate, and that's a big problem."

Kroger operates roughly 2,700 stores throughout the U.S., according to the company's website, and owns a suite of supermarkets that includes Harris Teeter, Fred Meyer, Fry's and Ralphs.

To conduct the investigation, Consumer Reports, The Guardian and FERN recruited people to shop at more than two dozen Kroger and Kroger-owned stores in 14 states and the District of Columbia over a roughly three-month period this year.

The investigation found that expired sales labels led to overcharges on more than 150 grocery items, with an average overcharge of $1.70 per item, or 18.4%. For instance, a bag of Mission Flour Tortillas at a Harris Teeter in Alexandria, Virginia, was advertised as on sale for $2.99, while customers were charged $4.99.

Although pricing mistakes were not found at all the Kroger stores in the investigation, the probe found issues at over half of the 26 locations it examined.

Kroger took issue with the findings, saying the investigation greatly overstates the pricing issues.

The "characterization of widespread pricing concerns is patently false," a Kroger spokesperson said in an email to CBS MoneyWatch, adding that the errors cited by the investigators represented only a "few dozen examples across several years out of billions of customer transactions annually."

Although Consumer Price Index data shows the rate of inflation and grocery prices eased last month, Americans continue to face higher costs for household goods.

"Even if the incidents are careless rather than calculated, it creates a perception that Kroger is ripping people off," said Neil Saunders, an analyst with retail industry research firm GlobalData in an email to CBS MoneyWatch. "That's not what any grocery retailer wants or needs when the consumer is looking to maximize value for money."

The overcharging problem is not unique to Kroger: Retailers like Walmart, Safeway, Albertsons and Vons have been hit with similar allegations.

Grocery giant Albertsons in October agreed to pay $4 million to settle a lawsuit accusing the California chain of selling items for more than their lowest advertised price.

But the Kroger case stand out for several reasons said Derek Kravitz, an investigative journalist and author of the Consumer Reports story. One is that in states in the Midwest and the South, where the retailer has a strong foothold, Kroger is often one of just a few places to choose from for grocery shopping.

Kravitz also pointed to the persistent flow of complaints from Kroger customers over out-of-date sales prices, dating back to the COVID-19 pandemic. In Ohio, for example, the attorney general's office has received nearly 60 complaints of price tag and overcharge issues at Kroger since 2021.

"Almost every single time I go in the store, the listed price of an item is NOT what rings up at the register," Belpre resident Allison Hadfield noted in one of three complaints she and her husband, Derek, filed against their local Kroger store, according to Consumer Reports.

In addition to individual complaints, customers have also filed multiple class-action lawsuits alleging pricing errors at Kroger locations, with cases ongoing in California, Ohio and Illinois, according to The Guardian.

Kroger said it has taken steps to fix price discrepancies. That includes instituting a policy that gives employees the authority to fix price problems on the spot.

"Kroger is committed to affordable and accurate pricing, and we conduct robust price check processes that reviews millions of items weekly to ensure our shelf prices are accurate," a spokesperson told CBS MoneyWatch.

Between 2019 and 2024, the average number of employees at the Kroger-owned stores that the researchers focused on fell by 10.3%, or 17 employees per store, according to the report, which cites data from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The average number of hours worked also fell by 2.7 hours per week.

"There are simply not enough employees to manually switch out price labels on shelves because some stores have tens of thousands of price tags hanging at any one time," Kravitz wrote in the report.

Kroger denies there is a problem with understaffing. In a statement to CBS MoneyWatch, the Kroger spokesperson said work hours and staffing at its stores have not been reduced.

"We intentionally staff our stores to keep them running smoothly while creating an enjoyable place to shop," the spokesperson said. "Our staffing decisions are data-driven to balance workload and schedules."

The investigation on overcharging comes as the grocery giant reports record sales and profits. Kroger reported $3.8 billion in operating profit last year, according to a March earnings report.

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