Investigation finds Kroger overcharging on sale items
You’re shopping for your family at Kroger when you notice a sale price on Cheerios cereal and grab a box, but later at the checkout, it rings up for full price. Is it a data entry error or part of a nefarious scheme to deliberately overcharge you?
A joint monthslong investigation by Consumer Reports, The Guardian and the Food & Environment Reporting Network doesn’t answer the question, but it found more than 150 overcharging errors at 26 stores owned by the Cincinnati-based supermarket giant across 14 states. The outlets enlisted secret shoppers who found “expired sales labels that led to overcharges” that averaged “$1.70 per item, or 18.4 percent.”
The inquiry found that Kroger didn’t honor the advertised price on Cheerios cereal, Mucinex cold and flu medication, Nescafé instant coffee, boneless beef, salmon and dog food, among other items.
“Kroger employees work quickly to correct pricing errors when they are pointed out. But for many other grocery shoppers, those pricing errors undoubtedly go unnoticed,” Consumer Reports wrote in its report.
Kroger: We have a 'Make It Right' policy
Union and Kroger employees in Colorado who are in the midst of contract negotiations blamed the company for understaffing in recent years, which allowed price discrepancies to affect customers, according to the report.
“They say store-level management tells front-end workers to fix price errors for individual shoppers who complain but doesn’t do what needs to be done to correct the expired discount tags that are driving the problem,” the report said.
Kroger officials deny intentional price discrepancies, adding its “Make It Right” policy ensures associates can handle “any situation when we unintentionally fall short of a customer’s expectations.”
“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,” the company said in a statement, adding the report “a few dozen examples … out of billions of customer transactions annually … the characterization of widespread pricing concerns is patently false.”
The company also denied that labor and work hours were a concern.