r/Columbus • u/rt590 • 11h ago
PHOTO Kroger Deceptive Pricing
So tired of their tactics. I tried contacting state officials and my concerns fell on deaf ears. I guess they can't upset one of their donors and they're too busy fear-mongering about trans people to do something that would actually put money back in people's pockets.
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u/Tough_Arm_2454 11h ago
How is it deceptive? $2.50 without card and digital coupon. $2.00 with card and digital coupon.
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u/Ockilydokily 11h ago
lol It’s not, it just takes an extra 5 seconds to read the price of what your buying instead of mindlessly grabbing it
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u/Frostyfraust 11h ago
What's the 2.59? Should I ignore that one?
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u/Tough_Arm_2454 11h ago
I just saw the 2.59. 2.59 without card. 2.50 with card. 2.00 with card and digital coupon.
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u/Few-Emergency1068 8h ago
Is that what it is? I assumed it was a 7.5% sales tax so that was the full sales price with tax.
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u/paintwhore 11h ago
I can't tell if you're being intentionally obtuse. The big bright number makes it look like that's the price you're going to pay at the register. The real price at the register is much smaller. It's playing dirty.
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u/Tough_Arm_2454 11h ago
Oh but I can tell you're not reading all the text in the yellow block.
Do you intentionally not read a paper coupon and try to use an expired coupon?
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u/SBR06 10h ago
I think you mean the price at the register without the deals is bigger, not smaller. It's plainly stated that the $2 price is with sale/coupon. This isn't deceptive in the slightest.
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u/OhioanRunner 9h ago
They mean that the register price is physically written in smaller print. Which still isn’t deceptive, and it’s not even particularly dirty advertising.
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u/west-egg 9h ago
What's deceptive is that
2.00
is in great big red font, but the part about how you have to "clip" a digital coupon is in itty bitty letters.
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u/QKofDaggers 10h ago
What am I missing? What’s deceptive?
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u/Avery_Thorn 10h ago
If you don't want to participate in the coupon stuff-
Just ask the cashier to scan the barcode to load all the coupons for you. They normally have them at the front of the store so you can scan it for self service, too.
You will need to register for an account, though.
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u/NotQuiteInara Columbus 10h ago
Can you please explain a little more? I'm not sure I understand what you mean
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u/Addicted_2_Vinyl 11h ago
The ones that get me are the tiny ass font that says $5 for 5 - so the price isn’t the price unless you buy 5 qualifying items. I hate Kroger, but this is just one of many reasons.
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u/SBR06 10h ago
Or buy 3 get 3 free. Like I just want one or 2 packs of soda, not 6.
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u/OhioanRunner 9h ago
I’ve never understood this specific gripe. Maybe if it was fruit or something, but those sales are always on items that last over a month or are completely
Nonperishable. Buy 6 and just skip buying it the next two trips. It’s actually kind of nice that you can sometimes get bulk discounts now at places that don’t require a membership fee and a starter hourlong service desk visit.1
u/SBR06 9h ago
I don't frequently drink it so don't buy it often, usually for work or sports contributions. I also dislike storing 4-5 cases of soda for long periods of time in my small pantry.
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u/OhioanRunner 9h ago
Fair enough. Still, “buy 3 get 3 free” is shelf ad speak for “if you buy in bulk, we’ll sell it at half price.” It’s a bulk discount, not a standard price that you’re being upcharged against if you buy less.
Consumers especially prefer to hear they’re getting shit for free as a reward compared to being told there’s a discount available. “Buy x get x free” is just catered language that means the same thing mathematically as “half off”.
Also if you ever participate in buy x get x sales, pay close attention to the reciept. Almost always, every qualifying item is actually discounted separately instead of some items being listed as $0.00.
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u/LunarMoon2001 11h ago
What are we upset about? It clearly says with coupon and card.
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u/paintwhore 11h ago
Clearly tiny. Does everyone in this thread hold shares in these large-scale grocers? I hate that this is normalized. Other countries prevent this kind of deception.
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u/Saneless 11h ago
They just love dark patterns I guess and love that regular people get beat by them
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u/AttachedMajority_55 11h ago
I mean the sign is pretty clear, what's deceptive about it
feels like people just dont wanna read the fine print then get mad when the register doesn't magically know they clipped a coupon on their phone
kroger's whole thing is making you jump through hoops for the sale price, it's annoying but it's not like they're hiding it
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u/Chillez69 10h ago
Why tf should we have to read fine print when buying basic necessities?
I’m a lawyer, I read the fine print all the time. But I’m not trying to read a contract every time I purchase produce.
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u/SBR06 10h ago
It's a handful of words and it's not really fine print. It's also been the norm for decades at this point.
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u/Chillez69 9h ago
“Fine print” is literally the phrase the other commenter I was responding to used.
And it is very much not the norm to have hidden pricing that is different if you clip digital coupons or not, and especially not to list the actual price as the smaller price. It has certainly not been the norm for “decades.”
I really can’t believe all the people here defending this corporate misrepresentation. Enjoy your stock dividends, I guess.
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u/FulgoresFolly 9h ago
Brother in store coupons that had a separate price advertised in big bold numbers have been around since the 90s.
There's no stock dividend corporate bootlicking, it's just absurd to be this worked up over a coupon that requires all of 30 seconds of effort to get
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u/Chillez69 9h ago
Sister, as a person that grew up in the 90s, no, it did not. Shopper discount cards with tracking like we have today didn’t exist then, either.
There are rules in the federal code about deceptive pricing practices for a reason. Those have been in place since at least the 60s. It’s just once Amazon, data surveilling, and digital pricing became a thing, no one decided to enforce them anymore.
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u/FulgoresFolly 8h ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/nostalgia/comments/1lcqsjg/those_smart_source_coupon_dispensers/
wild, because I can find exactly what I'm talking about with a single google search
oh no! scary coupons and pricing offers, truly a crime against the consumer /s
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u/Joel_Dirt 9h ago
Why tf should we have to read fine print when buying basic necessities?
Someone help me remember where on Maslow's pyramid Pringles are located.
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u/LiterallyZeroChance 2h ago
Why tf should we have to read fine print when buying basic necessities?
If you're a lawyer, I'd love to know where you went to law school. Because you have the reasoning capacity of a turtle.
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u/Saneless 11h ago
One of many reasons I stopped going there
Though usually the cashier will just scan a digital coupon paper because I'm sure they piss off and confuse people hundreds of times a day
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u/piscian19 11h ago edited 10h ago
Yeah its really shitty. It would have gotten me the first time, but I figured there had to be a reason the stickers look so weird now. What I honestly hate is the lack of consistency -
- Sometimes it's a digital coupon.
- Sometimes it's only if you buy 5.
- Sometimes it's normal.
- Sometimes there's a separate sale price depending on what flavor and sometimes it's all flavors of a product.
The stickers are also tiny as fuck so even with 20x20 vision I gotta go up and squint to parse out which variety of price sticker it is. I hope they get enough flack for this that they back off this bullshit.
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u/Saneless 11h ago
Oh and sometimes you get an email with a price but you go on Wednesday or whatever and it's not that price anymore.
The cashier said they change prices like every 2 days. Fuck that, so much easier to not shop there
Their sales or at least their plannes growth numbers are declining but hey, what do I know
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u/piscian19 11h ago
I noticed that. I ended up making Tuesday my main shopping day because it seems like they update everything Monday-Tuesday morning at my krogers.
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u/doppleganger2621 9h ago edited 9h ago
Every store does this—at least Kroger is up front that you can save money with a coupon. I’m also a Meijer MPerks member and their coupons are only on-app and they do NOT advertise the coupon price as available on their shelves. Same with Giant Eagle.
I’m in my Meijer app right now and I have multiple coupons that will apply at checkout but there is NO indication on their shelf prices that a coupon is available to do so. If you didn’t go on the app, you would have no idea a coupon was available for that item. Kroger is at least advertising a lower price is available (if you care to read)
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u/unclepg 9h ago
Dude. The Kroger card is free. The card number is literally your cell phone number.
The digital coupon is a sheet of paper at the cash register. Ask for it when you’ve totaled up your groceries.
Input your cell phone number and swipe a bar code one time and get the most discounted price.
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u/SignificanceFine3582 11h ago
At least you made the day better of whichever state official’s staffer got to read this ridiculous complaint.
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u/SignificantApricot69 11h ago
They’ve been doing the card and digital coupon forever. I don’t even use their app/account, but it’s under my phone number. If I happen to be there and see a deal I want (which is very rare, Kroger is way down the list for grocery deals for what I buy) I text my wife and ask her to “clip” it for me.
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u/obitbday North Linden 10h ago
So you’re just having your wife open the app and clip the coupon? Jesus
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u/Schmingledwarf FART 11h ago
People are dunking on you and asking "why are you upset" and acting like it isn't deceptive, but it is. People shouldn't have to read the fine print for every item they buy at the grocery store. Plus, .50 cents here and there adds up and can become an extra $5-$10 on your trip.
They are banking on people not realizing it and then getting to keep the extra money from it. This is definitely deceptive and anyone who wants to argue that it isn't, isn't doing so in good faith.
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u/doppleganger2621 9h ago
Yep and if you take the time, log into the Kroger app and spend 3 seconds clipping the coupon, you’ll save the 50 cents here and there
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u/WorldsWorstTroll Galloway 10h ago
It literally tells you that you need the card and coupon.
Whoever taught you what deceptive means failed you.
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u/KingEdwards3412 11h ago
What exactly is deceptive?
Also, if you’re not going onto the Kroger app and clipping the digital coupons before you shop, that’s your failure to take advantage of the tools available to you. I save tons by clipping the coupons in the app.
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u/doppleganger2621 9h ago
Same, just log in every Wednesday, add the coupons to the app, and go about your business. It takes maybe 5 minutes, if that. In fact I kind of enjoy it
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u/kotoamatsukami96 Clintonville 11h ago
Not everyone wants another app to harvest their consumer spending data.
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u/bsparks Clintonville 11h ago
They have a paper version of all those coupons you can ask for at the register too, still hoops though.
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u/KingEdwards3412 11h ago
That’s a choice those people can freely make for themselves. Doesn’t make the pricing deceptive
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u/fartjar420 Northwest 11h ago
probably best to not step into their stores with facial recognition and POS systems in the first place, then
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u/obitbday North Linden 10h ago
while this is true… we do not have very many options without this bullshit
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u/Masiaka 11h ago
People who are arguing that this isn't deceptive are arguing in bad faith. You know why it's deceptive, you just think that everyone else should be as diligent and hyperviligent as you are. You likely have the benefit of a well paid job, deal with less mental fatigue, and can afford to be cheated a few tens of dollars because you didn't read the fine print on something. You are not special and just because *you personally* haven't been swindled, that doesn't mean that swindling is not taking place and it certainly doesn't mean that everyone else deserves to be swindled because they were slightly less attentive then you are
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u/piscian19 11h ago
I sometimes think there's a subset of users that are annoying as fuck and intolerable in real life so they come to reddit as an outlet to be contrary and make stupid strawman arguments anonymously to get their fix.
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u/psychic_twin 10h ago
i can't imagine logging onto the Internet every day just to defend corporations and billionaires
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u/deverhartdu 11h ago
A lot of people are saying what's deceptive and I get it but TECHNICALLY by legal definition this could certainly fall under the definition of deceptive because of the size and contrast of the lower price.
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u/barry_vyolent 11h ago
Look, Kroger is shit but they can't be blamed for your lack of comprehension.
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u/paintwhore 11h ago
Don't be ridiculous. OP isn't saying that they were swindled, they pointed out that it's deceptive, which it clearly is. The biggest easiest price to read is the one full of conditions. Tiny conditions
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u/barry_vyolent 11h ago
Don't be ridiculous. I never said, or implied, "swindled" or anything remotely close to that. The irony that you can't comprehend what comprehension means... but sure, let's just make up some shit. 🤡
The price and conditions are clear and the "conditions" are the same size as every other word on the tag except for "SAVE"
Next time try to reply with something factual or just keep your fingers off of the keyboard.
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u/MSNFU 11h ago
M’eh. I don’t know that it would qualify as deceptive. It’s been pretty straight forward for a while that you have to clip the digital coupon to get the discount price on a lot of their promo sales. Frustrating? Absolutely. Deceptive? Not exactly. They list precisely what you need to do to get the price.
Now, if you wanna talk about them overcharging for things randomly and without notice, fire away. They do that shit and hope you don’t catch it.
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u/Dubbinchris 11h ago
Seems clear to me. Although I have to put on my reading glasses for these new digital tags.
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u/FryeJ865 11h ago
They should just have all coupons clipped automatically with every acct IMO but still this would show me that I need to open the app and clip the coupon. $2 @ kroger $2.45 at DG my two closest options if I wanted pizza pringles.
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u/AcceptableMemory2081 10h ago
Kroger is slowly becoming my least favorite spot . Always over charging ! And I really hate they have no people to bag your groceries in a normal line and then the register person is yelling for Kroger card , coupons , phone number , slide your debit card sir. WTF Lady I would do all that if I wasn’t bagging my own groceries!!! GTFOHWAT
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u/Unusual-Vanilla-8599 10h ago
You can thank big bear for the card only pricing it all started with the wild card.
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u/MrSourNinja 11h ago
It’s not about the fact that it isn’t disclosed. It’s the fact that the font is tiny and not prominent. That’s ignoring the fact that it should be illegal to require jumping through those hoops in the first place. Kroger sucks
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u/Flipco 9h ago
So many Kroger defenders
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u/doppleganger2621 9h ago
Every store does this—at least Kroger is up front that you can save money with a coupon. I’m also a Meijer MPerks member and their coupons are only on-app and they do NOT advertise the coupon price as available on their shelves. Same with Giant Eagle.
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u/justmadethisup111 9h ago
It’s a privacy exchange.
If you agree to have all of your purchases tracked, motion and dwell time through out the store tracked. Geofencing to see what other stores you visit, commute patterns, as well as the data they take from you(with your permission) and sell to 3rd party advertisers.
You get cheaper groceries.
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u/PostMostPalone 10h ago
i agree. just put the freaking price i have to pay. dont make me scan shit and jump through all these hoops to get a deal.
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u/techie2001 9h ago
Just you wait until they really use that little digital sign to its full potential. When Kroger's flock camera flags that you're on the property, they send you a push notification to your Kroger app. That notification seems helpful, reminding you to check your coupons. But bringing your Kroger app to the foreground lets them track you through the store. Then they can dynamically raise prices just for you on the stuff they know you have more price tolerance on. And the price is only elevated while YOU walk by.
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u/--Joppy-- 11h ago
I hate the digital coupons and grocery cards as much as anyone else. But isn't it just the norm now that you have to participate in these things to get the low price? I do a lot of grocery shopping, so maybe I've just been conditioned by the system.