At the grocery store, most of us assume the price on the shelf is the price we'll pay at the register. With grocery bills already stretching household budgets, few shoppers have time to check every line of their receipt. But our latest report suggests that Kroger customers may need to.
In September, CRFB released Kroger's Pricing Problem. The report draws on government inspection records from Ohio and nearly 2,000 accounts from customers, employees, and suppliers across the U.S. Together, these accounts describe pricing problems that keep coming back, from overcharges at checkout to "sales" that don't deliver real savings.
What inspectors found
Local governments regularly send inspectors into stores to check whether the price charged at the register matches the posted price. Through public-records requests, CRFB obtained the results of 389 of these inspections at Kroger stores across nine Ohio jurisdictions, covering 2022 through mid-2026.
The records show:
Inspectors found overcharging at 36 of the 101 stores examined, more than one in three.
58 of the 389 inspections were failures.
Inspectors recorded 644 incorrect prices. Overcharges averaged more than 20 percent above the shelf price.
Pricing errors favored Kroger nearly three times as often as they favored shoppers.
While honest pricing errors can and do happen, price discrepancies overwhelmingly in the store’s favor raise the question of whether they are errors at all.
These findings echo a 2025 Consumer Reports investigation that found Kroger overcharging customers by an average of 18 percent across 26 stores. CRFB's report suggests the problem has persisted.
What shoppers told us
Since May 2026, CRFB's Kroger Hurts Families campaign has invited shoppers and employees to share their experiences. Thousands responded, and many of these accounts corroborate what inspectors found:
Overcharges at checkout: 557 submissions (29 percent) described being overcharged. Many described confusion over Kroger's price guarantees and repeat trips to customer service to get their money back.
Misleading sales: 247 submissions (13 percent) described misleading signs, including purchase conditions buried in fine print and "sales" that shoppers said offered no real discount.
Discounts that are hard to get: 139 submissions (7 percent) described trouble accessing digital-only prices. These included accounts involving seniors, shoppers with disabilities, and people without smartphones.
High prices and few alternatives: 40 percent of relevant submissions described high, rising, or unaffordable prices. Eight percent alleged that prices were higher in places where shoppers had few other options.
"I have been overcharged too many times to count, to the point where I just accept it," one shopper wrote.
"People go to Kroger to feed their families, not to get ripped off at the register," said Taylor Warren, president of CRFB. "Customers are telling us they have to photograph price tags, challenge their receipts, and fight for refunds. When people need that kind of protection from their own grocery store, the company has failed them."
Why it matters
A few cents here and a few dollars there can seem minor on any one trip. But groceries are a weekly expense, and small overcharges add up, especially for families on tight budgets. And when a customer misses the error, they literally and figuratively pay the price, with no restitution.
"When an overcharge goes unnoticed, Kroger keeps money the customer was never supposed to pay," Warren said. "Those extra dollars matter to working families trying to afford food. Calling it a pricing error does not make it harmless."
The burden also falls harder on certain shoppers. Those without smartphone access or capacity to navigate the app may miss digital-only discounts. Shoppers in areas with few other grocery options may struggle to take their business elsewhere.
What CRFB is asking Kroger to do
CRFB is calling on Kroger to:
Honor its price tags
Make discounts accessible to all shoppers
Provide clear remedies when customers are overcharged
Stop charging more in communities with few alternatives
Shoppers shouldn’t have to double-check every receipt to make sure they’re paying the price on the shelf. Until Kroger fixes its pricing problems, CRFB will keep documenting them, and we encourage anyone who has been overcharged to share their story.