this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2024
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... or maybe customers don't have much of a choice ?
I live in a major city. The nearest Kroger is 2 blocks away. The nearest non-kroger is 7 miles away. And I have to drive past 3 Kroger's to get there. It's ridiculous.
I call shenanigans. I don't always pay close attention to the prices of all the things I buy, but one thing I do pay attention on is soda. (Probably because it's bad for me, so I give myself additional justification to buy it or not.)
And amidst all this "inflation", and all the talk about lowering prices back down to reasonable levels Kroger's price just on soda just jumped 25%.
Years ago I used to get a 12-pack for $5, and sometimes there'd be a 3-for-$12 deal. When COVID hit, it was 3-for-$15. Post-COVID, $7 a box. When they raised it to $8, I stopped buying it unless it's on sale or if my wife specifically requests it, and then I only buy one.
Then I went to Kroger a few weeks ago, and the only way to get a price under $8/box was to sign up for something on their app and sell them my personal information. So I decided not to buy from Kroger anymore.
This week my wife specifically requested a box, I was in Kroger anyway, and now it's $10/box or 3-for-$8. Fuck that. They hit their limit with me, and there are no circumstances in which I'm paying that much for soda.
Soda in general has increased across the board, but 12 for $8 is ridiculous since that's basically vending machine levels (I can find local vending machines for $0.75/can).
At Costco, I can get a 35-pack for about $18, less if it's on sale, which is still pretty expensive, but way less than the grocery store (basically ~$6/12-pack). Just a few years ago it was around $0.25/can, and now it's $0.50 in bulk, which is a huge shift.
2-liter prices are still pretty reasonable, so it seems the price increase is mostly for the packaging, not the product.
Fortunately, there's a competing brand in my area that's not under Kroger (or Walmart or Target), so I can easily avoid them. My local grocery isn't a mom-and-pop, but it doesn't extend that far outside of my state, so that's nice.
I go to Walmart and Food Lion because I worked for Kroger and I hate them.
Most of Kroger's other brands operate in areas where there isn't a Kroger. There's a tiny exception with Harris Teeter but it's mostly because it isn't profitable to change the signs, I guess.
If Walmart isn't trying to implement similar technology, I will be very surprised. They just haven't had to be public about it yet.
Walmart hasn't even updated to nfc use yet, that goes for Walmart and Lowe's Home Improvement. No idea on Sam's. I don't shop there.
I don't know why, but it has to be some internal reason they don't trust it.
Is it that they don't trust it or is it that they are waiting until they have a fully-realized plan before they spend the money to implement it.
As far as Sam's, we shop there and once you check out, they don't check your receipt anymore. They just wave you past them to the exit. I don't even know why they're standing by the exit anymore beyond some bureaucratic thing where they just haven't gotten around to eliminating the job yet.
Neither. They want people to use Walmart Pay so that they can avoid all fees and have complete control. Using NFC means using one of the other pay services that they don't control.
There's a point of diminishing returns with Walmart Pay. Eventually they will reach a point where the sign-ups will drop to a trickle and I think they are aware of that. So I think they will have this ready when they know Walmart Pay is no longer enough.