Kroger faces devastating consumer allegations | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

Have you ever been overcharged by a retailer when an on-sale item does not ring up correctly or when a cashier accidentally double-scans it? If so, you’re not alone.

To be safe, some customers inspect their receipts before leaving any store to ensure no overcharges have been made. Others are in too much of a hurry to verify everything is correct, causing errors to go unnoticed.

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It’s as common for customers to confuse prices and discounts as it is for cashiers to scan an item twice or accidentally mislabel a product.

We are all imperfectly human, and it’s normal to occasionally miscalculate. But what if a simple mistake becomes a widespread pattern?

Investigators have made devastating allegations against Kroger.

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Investigation of Kroger suggests shocking outcome

Kroger (KR) is a popular American retail company and grocery store chain with over 2,700 locations nationwide.

However, it has recently come under scrutiny, as it was revealed that Kroger has allegedly been overcharging customers on products listed as being on sale or discounted, raising prices by an average of 18%. This is according to a new investigation by the Guardian, Consumer Reports, and the Food & Environment Reporting Network.

To support these claims, a series of “secret shopper” tests were run in 14 states, and Colorado union workers conducted separate tests. Internal corporate documents, court records, complaints to government authorities, and interviews with customers, workers, and union officials were also used to back up the accusations.

The tests discovered expired price tags on more than 150 grocery items in 14 of the 26 stores, causing these products to cost more than advertised at checkout.

Kroger’s sale tags allegedly didn’t clearly show that the discount ended, and some expiration dates were in fine print or in a corporate code that was unclear to regular customers.

It was also found that Kroger has received hundreds of consumer complaints since 2020. This led to lawsuits against the company in California, Illinois, and Ohio on similar charges.

Overcharging by retailers is not a new problem

Although these allegations could damage Kroger’s brand, it’s not the first retailer to be hit with similar ones. Retail giants like Walmart (WMT) and Albertsons (ACI) have also faced such accusations.

Just last year, Walmart agreed to pay a $45 million settlement in April over alleged overcharging of weighted goods, and Albertsons paid $4 million in October over similar claims.

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Online research records show shoppers making similar allegations against various retail chains.

“Lately, there seems to be an abundance of mistakes, resulting in overcharging me. In the last six visits to these stores, I’ve been overcharged every single visit. Total for the month was almost $25 in mistakes,” claimed a Reddit user about Aldi.

“I have had to correct my H-E-B coupons so many times that we don’t even leave the store anymore until I’ve compared my coupons and my receipt. One time they left off $10 in coupons for one visit,” another user commented on the previous post.

“Strange that when we steal from stores, they call it theft. When stores steal from us, we call it ‘mistakes,'” a person on the same thread called out.

Kroger replied to TheStreet’s request for comment with the following:

“The Consumer Reports allegations boil down to misinformation, reviewing a handful of discrete issues from billions of daily transactions. It in no way reflects the seriousness with which we take our transparent and affordable pricing,” said a Kroger spokesperson.

“While any error is unacceptable, the characterization of widespread pricing concerns is patently false,” Kroger added.