Fake discounts? This major supermarket chain has been accused of overcharging shoppers

Every now and then when you’re walking down the supermarket aisle you catch sight of a deal on something and you toss it in the cart, whether or not you were planning to buy, only to get to the checkout and find that the price tag was wrong. Mistakes happen, but a recent investigation has found that it may be happening a little too frequently at Kroger grocery stores.

According to an investigation by Consumer Reports, The Guardian and the Food & Environment Reporting Network (FERN) they found that in over half of the 26 locations examined in 14 states and the District of Columbia that shoppers were being overcharged. The average overcharge per item was $1.70, or 18.4%, on over 150 grocery items ranging from cereal and instant coffee to cold and flu medication and dog food.

The probe recruited people to shop at Kroger-owned stores, including Harris Teeter, Fred Meyer, Fry’s, and Ralphs over 90 days. “The scale of the price errors identified at Kroger, and the length of time that these issues have persisted, are deeply concerning,” Nina DiSalvo, policy director of the nonprofit legal organization Towards Justice told Consumer Reports. The grocery store chain operates over 2,700 stores in 35 states, primarily in the South, Midwest and West.

Sticker shock at the register

“People should pay the price that is being advertised, that’s the law,” said Edgar Dworsky, a consumer advocate and former assistant attorney general in Massachusetts, who runs the Consumer World website, speaking to Consumer Reports. “The issue here is that shoppers can’t rely on the shelf price being accurate, and that’s a big problem.”

Consumer Reports notes, that “Kroger employees work quickly to correct pricing errors when they are pointed out,” but that the “pricing errors undoubtedly go unnoticed” by many shoppers.

A spokesperson for Kroger told CBS MoneyWatch that “the characterization of widespread pricing concerns is patently false.” The company said that as part of its efforts to fix price discrepancies, it has instituted a policy to give employees the power to fix any errors on the spot.

“Kroger is committed to affordable and accurate pricing,” said the spokesperson. “We conduct robust price check processes that reviews millions of items weekly to ensure our shelf prices are accurate.”

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