You may soon pay a price set just for you.

You’ve probably noticed the price of groceries creeping up. What you may not have noticed is that Kroger is quietly changing how it sets those prices — and the technology behind it could one day decide what you, specifically, pay at the register.

It may sound like science fiction, but it is very real and happening in Kroger stores right now. Here’s what “surveillance pricing” actually is, what Kroger has to do with it, and why you should care.

First, the terms you need to know

1. Digital price tags

If you’ve been down a Kroger aisle lately, you may have noticed paper price tags replaced by little digital screens, called “electronic shelf labels.” While that may seem harmless, these labels mean Kroger can change the price on any item in seconds, from a central computer, across a whole store or a whole region.

2. Dynamic pricing

Because the price is now just a number on a screen, it can be changed on short notice and as often as Kroger wants — based on time of day, weather, how busy the store is, or how fast something is selling. It is the same idea as the “surge pricing” familiar to rideshare users. U.S. Senators have warned that digital tags could let grocers “calibrate prices to extract maximum profits.” Kroger claims it does not use surge pricing.

3. Surveillance pricing

This is when a store uses data it has collected about you to set a price specifically for you. As New York’s Attorney General put it, one shopper could buy a gallon of milk at one price while another pays more for the same gallon later that same day — not because of a difference in the product, but because of a difference in the customer. The goal is to maximize profit: maybe it thinks you can afford more, maybe it knows you’re in a hurry, or that you have no other grocery store nearby.

So is Kroger actually doing this?

What’s proven: Kroger has built exactly the kind of system surveillance pricing requires. It serves about 63 million households a year, and more than 95% of its transactions are tied to a loyalty card. Its data-and-advertising arm helped generate $1.5 billion in profit from “alternative” businesses last fiscal year. A 2025 Consumer Reports investigation found Kroger builds detailed “secret shopper profiles,” even estimating each shopper’s income.

What Kroger says it does NOT do: Kroger has gone on the record saying it “does not and has never engaged in surge pricing,” and that it does not use facial recognition tied to its shelf labels. Independent researchers who studied more than 180 million Kroger prices found no evidence of surge pricing — so far.

The concern: The capability is real and documented. Kroger denies using it to charge individuals different prices today, but it has made no written commitment that an item will have just one price per store per day. The technology and the data are loaded and ready. We’re being asked to trust that Kroger will never pull the trigger.

Digital price tags just rolled out in Columbus, Ohio

The tags began appearing quietly in late 2025 with no announcement. By June 2026, reporting showed them in nearly one in four of Kroger’s roughly 2,700 stores. On June 17, 2026, Kroger confirmed it is rolling out the tags across its Columbus division, with the whole region converted by the end of 2027.

What it could mean for you at the register

A system that can change any price instantly, run by a company collecting data on you, is a system that can be used against you. What could Kroger do with it?

• Charging more to people with fewer choices. If Kroger is the only major store in your town, a pricing system that knows that has every incentive to take advantage of it.

• Charging more when you’re desperate. Someone shopping the evening before a holiday could pay more than someone who shopped that morning.

• Charging more because of who the data thinks you are. When a store secretly estimates your income, the obvious next question is whether that estimate ever affects your price.

• Prices you can’t trust or check. When prices change by the second and are tailored to you, there’s nothing stable to point to when the shelf price doesn’t match the register.

Even if Kroger never flips the switch on personalized pricing, the bigger issue is trust. Groceries aren’t a luxury — they’re a basic necessity families need to survive. A grocery store shouldn’t treat the checkout line like a poker game where the house can see your cards.

Lawmakers are paying attention

Senators Elizabeth Warren, Ben Ray Luján, and Jeff Merkley, along with a bipartisan group in the House, have pressed Kroger for answers and introduced bills to rein in surveillance pricing. Maryland and Connecticut have passed laws restricting personalized pricing on food, and New York’s legislature passed the “One Fair Price Act” to ban it outright. Notably quiet on the list? Ohio — Kroger’s own home state, where the Columbus rollout is happening right now.

The bottom line

Kroger is installing the most powerful pricing technology in its history at the exact moment it knows more about its shoppers than ever before — and it has refused to promise it won’t use one to feed the other. You shouldn’t pay more than your neighbor for the same gallon of milk because an algorithm decided you would.

Have you seen a shelf price that didn’t match the register at your Kroger? We’re collecting shopper experiences from across the country. Tell us your story at KrogerHurtsFamilies.com.