On Tuesday, October 20, Kroger CEO Greg Foran and Executive VP/CFO David Kennerley will stand in front of Wall Street and lay out the company's "strategic priorities and long-term financial outlook." In-person attendance is limited capacity and invitation-only, meaning everyday workers and shoppers likely won’t be in the room.
That's a problem, because the workers who stock the shelves and the families who fill Kroger's carts are the ones funding its business. Before investors get the polished pitch, here's what Kroger's reputation says about how it really treats the people its business depends on.
What Kroger plans to tell Wall Street
In its September earnings release, the company said it will share its strategic initiatives and longer-term financial targets on October 20. On the earnings call, CEO Greg Foran said he'll explain how Kroger grows sales in stores and online, how cost savings fund the customer experience, and what that means for the company's earnings power. When analysts asked how much Kroger is actually investing in lower prices, he declined to give numbers and said more would come in October.
But the truth is, Kroger isn’t selling much more than it was last year. Sales at its established stores, not counting gas, grew just 0.2% last quarter. Kroger now expects only 0.2% to 0.8% growth for the year, down from the 1% to 2% it predicted earlier. But it's still promising Wall Street the same profits it had already promised. How? By cutting costs, and by leaning on businesses beyond the grocery aisle: pharmacy, online orders, and an advertising business built on what Kroger knows about its shoppers.
Kroger is also buying back its own stock, $1.2 billion so far this year with $800 million more planned by the end of its fiscal year. Fewer shares means each remaining share gets a bigger slice of the profit, so earnings per share can rise even when the business itself isn't growing. That's exactly what happened last quarter: Kroger's adjusted profit fell about 4%, but its earnings per share rose 5% because there were about 9% fewer shares.
Kroger workers should listen closely to how Kroger describes its cost cutting. On the same call, Foran said Kroger's savings come partly from cutting headcount. Kroger shoppers should pay attention too: Foran also acknowledged on the call that Kroger's own research shows that when it comes to understanding its promotions, "well over half do not." That's the same confusion that leaves shoppers paying full price for "sale" items.
And if history is any indication, expect the data business to take center stage. At its 2018 investor conference, Kroger's then-CFO laid out a plan to "monetize both that data and that traffic" from its shoppers, and executives touted behavioral data on 60 million households. At its 2019 conference, Kroger praised its "asset-light, margin rich" data and media businesses and announced a new $1 billion stock buyback the same day.
That's the version investors will hear on October 20: lower costs, a growing data business and more money returned to shareholders. Shoppers and workers have been living in a different reality, which starts at the register.
Higher costs
Shoppers are facing price disparities that make shopping at Kroger a confusing and frustrating experience.
In 2025, Consumer Reports described findings of expired sale tags on more than 150 items in 26 Kroger-owned stores across 14 states and D.C. Overcharges turned up in 14 of the 26 stores. At the register, shoppers paid an average of $1.70 more per item than the shelf promised, an 18% markup over the advertised deal.
A third of those tags were at least 10 days out of date. Five were more than 90 days old. Kroger workers in Colorado had raised the problem during union bargaining, and union officials told reporters that understaffed stores couldn't keep up with tens of thousands of sale tags.
Kroger called the findings misinformation and said they reflected a handful of issues out of billions of transactions. But for a parent stretching a grocery budget, $1.70 here and there adds up fast. CRFB’s recent report, Kroger’s Pricing Problem, expanded upon Consumer Reports’ findings, detailing Kroger’s rampant overcharging dependent upon misleading sales and signage, and coupon accessibility issues for elderly, disabled, and offline patrons.
An invasive data business
Kroger shoppers are the product for sale.
Kroger knows a lot about you. Its loyalty program tracks what you buy, when, and where. And for years it has been installing electronic shelf labels that let a store change a price in seconds from a central computer.
That combination has lawmakers in both parties worried. At an August 4 Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on AI "surveillance pricing" (using personal data to set individualized prices), Sen. Josh Hawley singled out Kroger, saying it made half a billion dollars by tracking customers and selling that data. He called surveillance pricing "the unholy trinity of everything Americans hate." Maryland, Connecticut and New Jersey have already passed laws to restrict it.
Kroger says it has never engaged in surge pricing. Families deserve more than a statement. They deserve a commitment, in writing, that the tools Kroger is installing will never be turned against them.
More for shareholders, less for everyone else
Workers face uncertain futures with impending layoffs and store closures
In June 2025, Kroger announced it would close about 60 "underperforming" stores by the end of 2026. By August 2026, at least 39 had shut across nine banners, from Houston to Milwaukee. The cuts are reaching Kroger's offices, too. On October 12, Kroger told employees it plans to eliminate about 3,000 corporate jobs, more than a third of its corporate workforce, over the next three years as it leans into using AI at the company.
At the same time, Kroger's board approved another $2 billion for stock buybacks in December 2025, giving it roughly $2.9 billion to repurchase its own shares heading into 2026. And it's shopping for more. In July, Kroger agreed to buy Giant Eagle for $1.65 billion, adding 197 supermarkets and 11 pharmacies across northern Ohio, western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland and Indiana. Much of that territory overlaps with stores Kroger already runs, and Kroger says it expects to “divest” or sell off some Giant Eagle stores to win regulatory approval, creating uncertain futures for employees already struggling to make ends meet. This is the same company whose Albertsons merger was stopped in 2024 after the FTC warned it would mean higher prices and fewer choices for shoppers.
The money is there. The question is who it's for: shareholders, or the shoppers and workers who keep Kroger in business.
Five questions investors should ask on October 20
Kroger's leadership will take questions from analysts. Here are some they should be asking:
Earning business through customer trust: Kroger is rolling out electronic shelf labels while states are increasingly advancing laws restricting surveillance pricing. Will leadership make a public commitment that shelf labels and loyalty data won't be used to charge different shoppers different prices? If not, how is it managing the regulatory and reputational risk?
Price accuracy: Given the 2025 and 2026 findings on price labeling disparities, and management's own research showing most customers don't understand its promotions, how does Kroger measure shelf-price accuracy today, and what targets is it setting?
Maintaining integrity of store operations: With savings coming partly from headcount reductions, including about 3,000 corporate jobs, how will Kroger make sure stores stay staffed to keep shelves stocked, tags current, and service reliable? How will it manage employee morale in this context?
Reliance on shopper data: Retail media profit grew 24% last quarter while identical sales grew 0.2%. How much of the earnings outlook depends on monetizing shopper data, and how would tighter privacy rules or a loss of customer trust affect it?
Capital allocation: With sales nearly flat, Kroger is spending $2 billion on buybacks and $1.65 billion on Giant Eagle. How does it weigh those decisions against investing in lower prices and better stores, and how will it avoid higher prices or fewer choices in markets where the two chains overlap?
Each of these is a consumer issue and a business risk. Shoppers who feel overcharged, confused, or exploited take their business elsewhere. In a year when Kroger's sales are barely growing, it can't afford to lose them.
Make your voice heard
Kroger will spend October 20 telling Wall Street a story about growth. Let's make sure it also hears from the workers and families footing the bill.
Share this post with your thoughts for Kroger and the hashtag #KrogerHurtsFamilies before and during the webcast (9 a.m. to noon ET, October 20) on Investor Day.
Pull up a chair: Kroger’s press release states that “All interested parties are invited to access the webcast” - register and view here. The webcast is scheduled from 9am - 12pm ET. “An on-demand replay of the webcast and presentation materials will be available on Kroger's investor relations website following the event.”
Check your receipt every time you shop. Photograph sale tags, and report overcharges to your state attorney general.
Tell your lawmakers you support a ban on surveillance pricing.
