Provided By: Larry Gardner - Lakewood Colorado

MAYBE YOU SHOULD RECONSIDER WHO IS ACTUALLY SELLING PRODUCTS CHEAPER. Based on the article below (Denver Post) this issue of fair pricing at Kroger seems endemic throughout the U.S.

Please share with friends, family and parishioners at your church of choice, as appropriate. If desiring further action,you can also file a complaint with the CO A.G's office.

‘Secret shoppers’ at King Soopers, other Kroger stores say overcharging is common

 Members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 say "secret shoppers" who visited 50 Kings Soopers and City Market stores in March found wide discrepancies between prices listed on shelves and what people actually paid.

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 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.

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 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.

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..

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. 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.