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Price check? You bet, thanks to an issue with some U.S. retailers overcharging customers for products tagged as being on sale. One secret shopper, however, brought receipts — literally.
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Betti Johnson of Bothell, Wa., joined a Consumer Reports (CR) investigation that sent secret shoppers to 26 Kroger-owned retailers across the country between March and May of this year to look into “allegations of unfair and deceptive pricing practices.”
The CR investigation (1) — spurred on by “multiple class-action lawsuits alleging pricing errors” against Kroger in various states — discovered “expired sales labels that led to overcharges on more than 150 grocery items” ranging from meat and fish to cold medication and dog food. They added that the out-of-date sales tags resulted in an average 18.4% overcharge per item, or $1.70 extra every time it happened.
“I walked the aisles and looked for expired sales tags and documented what I found. If I found a section [of the store] that had been missed, pretty much every sales tag was expired,” Johnson told Seattle’s KIRO 7 news (2) in a recent follow-up about her secret shopper experience. She noted that she was subsequently overcharged for many of the items she purchased.
And the Kroger family of stores — which includes Ralph’s and Fred Meyer, among others — isn’t alone when it comes to pricing controversies. Earlier this month, North Carolina fined seven stores, including Target, Circle K, Family Dollar, Dollar General and Rural King, “for price scanning errors” that charged up to 22% above the sticker price.
Meanwhile, last year in California, the Albertsons grocery chain received a $3.9 million fine “for overcharging customers … and falsely advertising the weight of certain products (3).” And in 2023, Wisconsin reached an $850,000 settlement with Dollar General over “662 alleged violations of (state) price accuracy laws,” as well as alleged refund policy disclosure law violations (4).
Yet, when it comes to the Kroger situation she helped investigate, Johnson doesn't necessarily believe the practice is purposely deceptive. In fact, she and others point to a real issue at store level for which customers ultimately pay the price.
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What’s causing the overpricing issue?
The CR investigation at Kroger’s found that, in about half the stores they visited, “the price tags were mostly up to date and correct” thanks to employees who routinely change the sale tags. The stores that had the most pricing errors, however, were the ones struggling with staffing cuts.
Story continues“They’re so short-staffed,” Johnson told KIRO 7, “that the people who go in to do the pricing changes can’t complete their job.”
In fact, CR spoke with Kroger’s employees who claimed that staff shortages at their stores meant that ”there are simply not enough employees to manually switch out price labels on shelves because some stores have tens of thousands of price tags hanging at any one time.”
One longtime company employee from Denver told CR that “It really makes me feel bad because some of [the customers] are on fixed incomes and they’re older. They’re not going to pay attention.” CR added that while Kroger has “reported record-breaking grocery sales and profits,” they’ve also significantly cut the number of employees and work hours, with stores losing an average of 17 employees since 2019.
Kruger reps “disputed” the suggestion of reduced labor hours to CR, adding that they’re “committed to affordable and accurate pricing” and that “the characterization of widespread pricing concerns is patently false.” They also said that they have policies to allow employees to correct pricing errors for customers, and are looking into digital pricing tech to help curb the issue in the future.
That being said, it’s clear that overcharging has been an issue with retailers — yet another financial blow for customers on top of the ongoing affordability crisis.
“Overcharging consumers at the point of checkout only adds an additional cost at a time when American families can least afford it,” Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego wrote in a letter to Kroger’s interim CEO and chair following the CR investigation (5).
Gallego's point about affordability is valid. Even without pricing errors, the most recent Consumer Price Index (CPI) showed that the overall cost of groceries rose 2.7% year-over-year between September 2024 and September 2025, while individual items like instant coffee (up 21.7%), steak (up 16.6%), bananas (up 6.9%), frozen fish and seafood (up 6.6%) and canned fruits and vegetables (up 5%) far exceeded the average hike percentage (6). In addition, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) found that food prices have risen faster than inflation and predict another 2.7% increase next year (7).
How to protect your pocketbook against overpricing
Both Johnson and a KIRO 7 news team noted that, following the CR investigation, return visits to Kroger showed a marked improvement in pricing. Johnson, for example, said multiple locations exhibited “perfect” sales tagging, while the news team itself yielded similar results.
That’s good news for consumers, though it’s still important to remain vigilant when shopping.
One easy way to avoid being overcharged is to double-check the expiry date on any sale tags before putting items in your cart. That way, you save yourself the stress of disputing an expired sale price at the checkout or, worse, accidentally paying more than you budgeted for.
Online consumer legal site FindLaw notes that “If an employee failed to update the tag or change numbers in the pricing gun, you should be entitled to the lower price. Every retailer typically has a pricing policy that you can review (8).”
In addition, most states have individual laws about overcharging customers. Michigan law, for example, says that a buyer who is charged more than the displayed price is entitled to a refund of the difference, plus “an amount equal to 10 times that difference” up to an additional $5 (9). Other states, from New York to Kentucky, levy hundreds of dollars in fines per violation against retailers who, upon inspection, don’t achieve a 98% accuracy rate for product pricing.
Meanwhile, independent consumer advocate Mary Bach has been suing stores for overcharging for years — and winning. She told CBS that joining a store’s loyalty program can help mitigate overcharging issues, because “you definitely do get a lower price” with a loyalty card. If you do find yourself being overcharged, though, Bach says not to be shy to speak up (10).
“If they've got a tag up saying that a price is one thing and then you're charged a higher amount at checkout, you really should protest because they are breaking the law at that point.”
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Article sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.
Consumer Reports (1); KIRO 7 News (2); Desert Sun (3); Progressive Grocer (4); Senator Ruben Gallego (5); Bureau of Labor Statistics (6); U.S. Department of Agriculture (7); FindLaw (8); Shopping Reform and Modernization Act (9); CBS News (10)
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
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