If you shop at a Kroger-owned grocery store, you might want to check your receipt before leaving.
Consumer Reports released findings indicating it found pricing errors at half of the locations studied. The report states that Kroger generally switches out sale tags on grocery shelves on Wednesdays, but some locations failed to update tags, prompting customers to pay the wrong price.
Consumer Reports identified several items with incorrect prices, including Cheerios cereal, Mucinex cold and flu medication, Nescafé instant coffee, boneless beef, salmon, and dog food.
The report found that one in three expired sales tags were at least 10 days out of date, with some shoppers discovering tags that were over 90 days out of date.
Consumer Reports reported that the average overcharge was $1.70 per item, or 18.4%.
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Given the number of incorrect sales tags, the report suggests customers could lose significant sums of money if they are not careful.
Kroger disputes the findings.
“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," Kroger said in a statement.
Kroger added that it has a "Make it Right" policy that "ensures associates can create a customer experience and addresses any situation when we unintentionally fall short of a customer’s expectations."
Consumer Reports conducted its review in stores across Arizona, Michigan, Oregon, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia.
The report indicated two possible reasons for the discrepancies: human error or staffing shortages.
"The only discernible pattern was that some stores we checked had erroneous price labels clustered in specific aisles or in particular product categories, suggesting that employees largely missed those areas when updating labels," the report stated.
Consumer Reports initiated the review of Kroger locations after workers alleged widespread errors on price labels, a problem that Kroger allegedly knew about.
