US retail giant Kroger prepares its biggest price cut in years to challenge Walmart and Costco

According to Bloomberg, Kroger's (Kroger) new CEO Greg Foran is preparing for a broad price reduction, planning to test and then roll out in phases, covering thousands of items in stores. This largest food supermarket company in the United States owns 21 grocery chains, including City Market and Fred Meyer.

Foran stated that value-focused retailers such as Walmart, Costco, Trader Joe’s, Aldi, and Amazon have been continually eroding the growth space of traditional grocery stores in recent years. To counter this challenge, Kroger will cut costs by directly importing goods and using technology more efficiently, and then use the saved funds for price reductions. Foran added that prices for all in-store items will decrease, but he refused to disclose the specific amount of investment.

“The reality is that the cost of the shopping basket has to come down overall. And everybody's shopping basket is different. It has to cover thousands of products and must make sense to the customers.”

This strategy is essentially a response to changes in consumer behavior. Rising fuel prices, increasing inflationary pressures, and tightening government benefits have made American families more sensitive to their everyday shopping expenditures. Although overall spending on groceries remains healthy, price anxiety has become an unavoidable variable for retailers.

Foran's plan is not solely reliant on low prices. The company is also advancing reforms across five directions simultaneously: "fresh, fast, affordable, friendly, and personalized," and plans to accelerate the opening of new stores and improve store services and e-commerce delivery efficiency. Kroger anticipates opening 70 to 80 new stores next year, which is double the number of new stores expected in 2026.