Kroger’s plans to roll out facial recognition at its grocery stores is attracting criticism from lawmakers, who warn it could lead to surge pricing and put customers’ personal data at risk
In a letter Friday to Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) said the plans — which involve using facial recognition tools in digital displays to target advertising to customers and collect information on them — potentially pave the way for biased pricing discrimination.
“Studies have shown that facial recognition technology is flawed and can lead to discrimination in predominantly Black and Brown neighborhoods,” Tlaib wrote in the letter, which was posted on social media Tuesday. “The racial biases of facial recognition technology are well documented and should not be extended into our grocery stores.”
Kroger is the largest grocery store chain in the country with nearly 3,000 stores and $3.1 billion in profits in 2023. Kroger and other retailers already use electronic shelving labels instead of paper labels to rapidly adjust prices based on a variety of factors, including time of purchase, where a grocery store is located and other data.
The plan to use facial recognition technology could allow the retailer to build individual profiles on customers, based on data like their gender and shopping habits.
In an August letter sent to McMullen about the same plans, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bob Casey (D-PA) said they were concerned about the chain building “personalized profiles of each customer, and then use those profiles ‘to determine how much price hiking each of us can tolerate,’ quickly updating and displaying the customer’s maximum willingness to pay on the digital price tag.”
The use of facial recognition tools in Kroger stores also raises concerns about how Kroger intends to “adequately” safeguard customer data, the Warren and Casey letter said.
Kroger also owns: Ralphs, Dillons, Smith’s, King Soopers, Fred Myer, Fry’s, QFC, City Market, Owen’s, Jay C, Pay Less, Baker’s, Gerbes, Harris Teeter, Pick‘n Save, Metro Market and Mariano’s.
Thank fuck I haven’t heard of a single one of those stores and have never shopped in them
More of a hardcore Jewel/Osco shopper?
No - I think Mariano's and PicknSave would be competitors in that region. I travel a bit through the US, and I'm flummoxed. My Kroger discount card works more times than not, no matter where my work takes me and no matter which the local branding is.
Grew up in Chicago, you just reminded me of Dominick's
That’s not surprising, if you live outside of the US. Otherwise, I do have a follow up query for you 😅
I’m in the us. Must be a west coast thing.
Kroger is big in the east, the others are bigger in the west IIRC. And OP missed Fred Meyer, which is big in the PNW.
Missed Fred Meyer, which is huge in the PNW.
I don't shop at any of those, mostly because it's not my closest grocery store. It is the biggest though, I just don't want to drive the extra 10 min to go there vs my local one w/ competitive prices.
Added
Isn't there a whole big deal about Fred Meyer merging with them and some anti monopoly bs going on?
They want to merge with Albertsons, who owns the other half of grocery stores: Acme, Safeway, jewel osco, and a bunch more.
Ah that explains it
And now Safeway!
But don't worry, there's still Walmart as an option.
May I introduce you to our lord and savior, Aldi?
I wish you would! The closest one to me is just under 1,000 miles away.
As an aside, I personally don't understand why people would choose Kroger over Walmart
Fuck Walmart.
This is why. Kroger is terrible but Walmart is worse.
I wouldn't necessarily even consider the quality better at Walmart than it is at Kroger so, while both are bad, Walmart is definitely worse for a lot of other reasons.
We switched from Kroger to a couple of international groceries. It's hit and miss quality wise, but this way I'm only supporting at most a handful of greedy shitbags.