‘Secret shoppers' at Kroger stores say overcharging is common

Miami Herald

17-05-2025

Shopping trips to King Soopers and City Market stores in Colorado and other Kroger-owned supermarkets in other states turned up what the shoppers say were widespread discrepancies between the price on the shelves and what got rung up.
As a result, the customers spent more for groceries than they expected at a time when prices for most items remain high and tariff increases have stoked fears of inflation heating up again. Walmart, the nation's largest grocer, warned Thursday that higher tariffs on imports will raise prices.
Members of the union negotiating a new contract with King Soopers shopped at 50 stores across Colorado over four days in March. The total tab, paid for by the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7, was $3,921.11.
However, based on the price tags on the shelves, the bill should have been $3.297.26, or nearly 16% less, said Kristi Bush, the union's associate general counsel and one of the shoppers.
The UFCW's secret shopper excursions coincided with ones made by The Guardian newspaper,Consumer Reports and the Food & Environment Reporting Network in 26 Kroger-owned stores in 14 states and the District of Columbia in March, April and May. The media outlets said there was a pattern of overcharging by listing expired sale prices on the shelves but scanning in the regular prices at the checkout.
The tests by the media partners found more than 150 items with expired tags, leading to average overcharges of about $1.70 per item, 18% over the discount price listed on the shelves.
"Our findings suggest the typical Kroger shopper ends up paying far more for what they think are discounted items - all during a time of inflation and economic uncertainty," Consumer Reports said.
The union that represents King Soopers and City Market employees in Colorado has made the discrepancies an issue in contract negotiations that started late last year. The union said the stores are understaffed and changing out tags on the shelves is one of the duties that has suffered as a result.
"The tags are out of date and the reason they're out of date is they don't have the staff to pull the tags," said Jim Hammons, UFCW retail director and a former King Soopers store manager. "King Soopers has cut the hours so bad that they don't have enough time to do that step in the process, which is to pull the old tags."
The question of staffing levels is one of the issues that King Soopers and UFCW Local 7 have tangled over during contract talks, which were interrupted temporarily in February by a strike. The union raised the issue while King Soopers and Albertsons, which owns Safeway stores in Colorado, were pursuing a merger. The deal collapsed in December after judges in two separate cases rejected the merger.
King Soopers has disputed that its stores are understaffed. The company also played down the reports of price discrepancies, saying in an email Wednesday that the claims, "based on a limited number of isolated issues, do not reflect the seriousness with which we approach transparent and affordable pricing."
The Colorado Agriculture Department is looking into questions about pricing at King Soopers. Spokeswoman Olga Robak said the investigation is led by the Inspection and Consumer Services Division's Weights and Measures program. The program handles price-test verifications and investigates pricing discrepancies.
Kim Cordova, UFCW Local 7 president, said the union has shared the information from its shopping trips with Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser in hopes that he will investigate.
The attorney general's office can't confirm or otherwise comment on investigations, spokesman Lawrence Pacheco said.
In 2023, Weiser and the Nevada attorney general reached a settlement with Walmart over the company's failure to make sure the price customers paid matched the price listed on the shelf. The settlement called for Walmart to pay $3 million to Colorado to help fund local food pantries and other food assistance programs.
Bush, who went to King Soopers stores to check prices, said shoppers took timestamped pictures of the items on the shelves and later compared the tags on the shelves to the receipts. She said the point was to buy items people normally would rather than try to ferret out specific problems.
The bill for a trip to an Englewood store was $83.80. Based on the prices listed on the shelves, it should have cost Bush $57.61. In one case, she got two bottles of soap that were advertised at a special price of $8.99 per bottle if she bought two. But the receipt showed she paid the full price of $14.99 per bottle.
In another case, Bush picked up a bag of chicken strips, "the kind that you would feed your kids." The regular price was $10.99 per bag, or $9.99 with a King Soopers loyalty card. The tag listed an additional discount of $2 per bag if the shopper bought three of the items.
"I bought three and they charged me $10.99 for each bag of chicken," Bush said. "The total should have been $23.97. I paid $32.97."
Chris Lacey is a service manager at a Littleton King Soopers. He's not surprised by the reports of listed prices not matching what people actually pay.
"We see price discrepancies in the front end daily," Lacey said.
Last week, avocados were listed on the King Soopers app for 99 cents apiece, but Lacey said they rang up as $1.49 for each one. When a shopper points out a mistake, employees will correct the bill. But Lacey said the price rarely gets fixed systemwide.
Customers sometimes take out their frustration on employees.
"I have had customers yell at me. I've had customers cuss out some of my staff," Lacey said. "I've had product thrown at my feet because people didn't want to pay the price."
Lacey understands the anger. "I would maybe not do what some of these people do, but I would definitely voice my displeasure to the company."
Cordova said the union's goal is to ensure that shoppers are not overcharged and that pricing is fair and transparent. She said one of the union's contract proposals is the formation of a pricing-integrity department.
"We're not trying to take Kroger down. We're trying to make better stores for our members to work at and for our communities to shop at," Cordova said.
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