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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesThere is no verified public evidence that Kroger used facial recognition to charge shoppers individualized grocery prices. The concern arose from the combination of two different technologies: electronic shelf labels that can change prices quickly, and connected-store systems that could use customer or camera data for personalized offers and advertising.
That distinction matters. Kroger’s technology plans raised legitimate questions about privacy, discrimination and future pricing practices, but lawmakers’ warnings and the presence of digital price tags do not prove that Kroger has implemented face-based surge pricing.
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What Kroger and Microsoft proposed
In January 2019, Kroger and Microsoft announced a connected-store partnership built around Microsoft Azure, Azure AI and Kroger’s EDGE Shelf system. EDGE Shelf is an electronic shelf-label platform designed to replace paper tags with digital displays.
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Several data systems can exist alongside one another in a modern grocery store:
- Electronic shelf labels display prices and other information and can be updated remotely.
- Cloud and artificial-intelligence systems can coordinate inventory, promotions and store operations.
- Loyalty accounts and apps provide purchase history, shopping behavior and offer-eligibility data.
- Cameras or facial-analysis tools may detect faces, estimate characteristics or, in some cases, attempt to identify individuals.
These systems are related in a connected-store strategy, but they are not interchangeable. A digital shelf tag is not itself a facial-recognition device, and a camera detecting a face does not automatically control a price.
Why lawmakers connected the technology to surge pricing
In August 2024, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bob Casey questioned Kroger’s rollout of electronic shelf labels. Their concerns included the possibility that digital tags could make it easier to change grocery prices rapidly in response to demand, weather, time or other conditions. They also raised questions about whether cameras and customer data could support profiling, personalized offers or discriminatory treatment.
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Those letters were requests for information and warnings about possible misuse—not technical proof that Kroger was already operating a face-linked pricing system. The distinction is important because a headline can easily compress a confirmed technology plan, a hypothetical use and a political concern into one statement.
What “surge pricing” means in a grocery store
Surge pricing generally means prices rise in response to unusually high demand or temporary conditions, as can happen with ride-hailing or event tickets. Dynamic pricing is broader: prices may change over time based on demand, inventory, location, channel, costs or other variables.
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Grocery retailers already use several forms of variable pricing, including:
- Temporary promotions and markdowns
- Store-level or regional price differences
- Loyalty-card discounts
- App-only offers
- Clearance pricing for products nearing expiration
- Price changes related to supplier costs or inventory
These practices are not automatically surveillance pricing. Personalized or surveillance pricing refers to using detailed information about a consumer—such as browsing history, purchase history, location, demographics or inferred characteristics—to tailor an individual price or promotion.
Electronic shelf labels can make remote and rapid price changes easier. The Federal Trade Commission has described electronic displays and algorithmic systems as technologies that could facilitate rapidly changing or targeted prices. But the technology’s capability does not show how a particular retailer is using it.
What Kroger denied
Kroger said it did not, and had never, engaged in surge pricing. The company also said its electronic shelf-label testing was intended to lower prices or make discounts available to more customers.
Kroger later stated that facial recognition was not connected with electronic shelf labels or pricing. Based on the public evidence available for this issue, the supportable conclusion is therefore:
Kroger’s connected-store plans and reported camera concepts prompted concerns about what the technology might enable, but publicly available evidence does not establish that Kroger used facial recognition to set individualized grocery prices.
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A company denial describes its stated position and current practice; it does not answer every question about future experimentation or every possible use of related data. That is why the relevant evidence would include technical documentation, store notices, matched-price testing, receipts, audits or regulatory findings—not simply the existence of digital tags or cameras.
Facial detection, facial analysis and facial recognition are different
Discussion of “facial recognition” can obscure several technically different practices:
- Facial detection identifies that a face is present in a camera frame.
- Facial analysis may estimate attributes such as an age range or apparent gender without identifying a named person.
- Facial recognition attempts to match a face to a known identity or template.
- Biometric processing can involve face geometry, templates or other information derived from a face.
Non-identifying analysis can still create privacy risks. A system may track people across spaces, retain images, infer sensitive characteristics or share data without identifying shoppers by name. At the same time, a camera that estimates age or gender should not be described as identifying every customer.
Kroger’s current privacy policy says that select Texas stores may collect biometric information, including facial-recognition data, for security purposes, such as preventing or investigating shoplifting, fraud and other criminal activity. The policy says shoppers will receive notice at store entry. Security-related biometric use is materially different from using facial data to decide what a shopper pays.
Kroger’s policy also describes categories of information that may include identifiers, customer records, commercial information, internet or electronic-network activity, inferences and information used for targeted advertising. Shoppers should distinguish data collected through loyalty programs and apps from in-store video, biometric information, aggregated data and information shared with advertising or technology providers. Kroger’s privacy policy explains the company’s stated data practices and applicable choices.
Could a digital shelf label show each shopper a different price?
In theory, individualized in-store pricing would require considerably more than an electronic tag. A retailer would need:
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- A method to identify or classify the shopper.
- A pricing engine connected to that information.
- A way to associate the shopper with a particular product and shelf display.
- Integration with loyalty, promotion, inventory and checkout systems.
- Rules to ensure that the shelf display, app, register and receipt agree.
- Clear disclosures and processes for correcting errors or disputes.
That infrastructure could theoretically be built, but the existence of an electronic label proves only that information can be updated more easily. It does not prove that a face, loyalty account or inferred characteristic is being used to set the displayed price.
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Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the FTC’s surveillance-pricing work shows
The Kroger controversy occurred as the FTC examined surveillance pricing more broadly. In July 2024, the agency ordered information from companies that provide surveillance-pricing products and services. The FTC described systems that may use location, demographics, browsing history, shopping history and other behavioral information.
Initial FTC findings released in January 2025 said intermediary firms could help businesses target prices or promotions using detailed personal information. That work demonstrates that data-driven individualized pricing is a real market-wide concern. It does not establish that Kroger used one of those systems or that Kroger connected facial recognition to its shelf labels.
The risks can exist without facial recognition. A retailer could potentially use loyalty data, app activity, location, shopping patterns or inferred purchasing power to personalize an offer. In some cases, those data points could also act as proxies for protected characteristics.
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The FTC’s 2024 investigation announcement and its January 2025 findings provide the broader context.
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Do electronic shelf labels cause price increases?
Not necessarily. Electronic tags can provide legitimate operational benefits, including faster markdowns, fewer paper-label replacement errors and better synchronization between shelf and checkout prices. They can also reduce labor involved in replacing paper labels, although installation and system costs remain practical limitations.
A 2025 study reported by the Associated Press found virtually no increase in temporary price surges after electronic shelf labels were introduced in the stores it examined. The reported data showed temporary price increases affecting about 0.005% of products on a given day before installation, with an increase of only 0.0006 percentage points afterward.
That finding weighs against the simple claim that “digital tags equal surge pricing.” It is not a definitive audit of every Kroger store, nor does it prove that dynamic or surveillance pricing is impossible. It is evidence that the presence of electronic labels alone is insufficient to establish abusive price increases. Read the AP report on the study.
What risks remain even if Kroger is not using face-based pricing?
- Opacity: Shoppers may not know why they received a particular promotion or price.
- Proxy discrimination: Location, shopping behavior or inferred income could produce unequal treatment.
- Data retention and breaches: Facial, loyalty and behavioral records create different categories of security risk.
- Function creep: Data collected for security could later be considered for advertising, analytics or other purposes.
- False matches and bias: Facial systems can be inaccurate and may perform unevenly across groups.
- Essential-goods impact: Personalized pricing for food can be more consequential than targeting discretionary purchases.
- Competition: Shoppers in areas with few grocery alternatives may have less ability to switch stores.
- Price disputes: Rapid updates can create mismatches between shelf labels, apps, registers and receipts.
These are reasons for transparency, limits on data use and effective consumer protections. They are not evidence that Kroger has already charged shoppers different prices based on their faces.
What Kroger shoppers should watch for
Consumers trying to understand how a store’s technology affects them can look for concrete signals:
- Store-entry notices describing camera or biometric collection.
- Whether a loyalty account or app is required for a discount.
- Whether an offer is available to everyone or appears only in an individual account.
- Differences between the shelf label, app, checkout screen and receipt.
- Changes to the company’s privacy policy or retention disclosures.
- Explanations of what information determines a promotion or price.
- A clear process for challenging an incorrect price or disputed biometric match.
For a suspected pricing discrepancy, save the receipt, photograph the shelf or digital display when permitted, note the time and store, and ask customer service which price rule applied. A single mismatch may be an operational error; a pattern of unexplained, individualized differences would require stronger evidence and potentially regulatory attention.
The bottom line
Kroger’s electronic shelf-label and connected-store plans made faster price changes and data-driven promotions more feasible, which is why lawmakers raised concerns about surge pricing, surveillance and discrimination. Kroger denied using surge pricing and said facial recognition was not connected to electronic shelf labels or pricing.
Kroger does disclose possible facial-recognition collection in select Texas stores for security purposes. That disclosure should be taken seriously as a privacy issue, but it is not proof of face-based pricing. The evidence supports a narrower conclusion: the technology created legitimate questions about future or broader data use, while individualized grocery prices based on shoppers’ faces remain unproven.
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