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Kroger Confirms Digital Price Tags in Nearly One in Four Stores

Lawmakers and state officials are moving to ban or limit the tags over worries they could enable personalized surge pricing and in-store surveillance.

Lawmakers push to restrict digital grocery pricing technology as concerns grow over surveillance pricing and data-driven price discrimination.
A digital price label at the Walmart Supercenter on Washington Avenue Extension in Albany. The price is colored yellow to signify that the item is on clearance.

Overview

  • Kroger disclosed Saturday that electronic shelf labels are now in roughly 25% of its U.S. stores after tests that began in 2018 and expansion to about 500 locations by 2023.
  • The company says the labels let managers change prices centrally in seconds to save labor, speed markdowns and reduce food waste, and a Kroger operations vice president has denied the company uses surge pricing.
  • Federal lawmakers have proposed the Stop Price Gouging in Grocery Stores Act to ban surveillance pricing and restrict digital tags at large stores, and at least a dozen states have introduced their own limits.
  • The shift is industry wide: Walmart plans a nationwide rollout with about 4,600 locations expected to have electronic labels by the end of 2026, and vendors such as VusionGroup are expanding contracts to support installs.
  • Researchers and advocates are divided: one academic study found dynamic pricing can cut food waste by about 21%, while a union-backed survey reports strong public opposition and experts warn the tags make rapid, data-driven price changes possible.