Kroger has been adding cutting-edge price tag technology at several locations over the past month, the grocer told The Cincinnati Enquirer, part of the USA TODAY Network.
Electronic Shelf Labels, or ESLs, allow a grocer to change prices on goods in stores via computer without having a clerk change the stick-on labels. Kroger said nearly one out of every four of its stores nationally have them.
The Cincinnati-based supermarket giant said the move will save it countless hours of work and free up associates to help customers more.
Critics of the technology fear it could open the door to predatory pricing practices, such as raising prices during busy periods, called “surge pricing.”
Kroger defends technology, provides new details
Kroger quietly began deploying the labels in local stores last fall in about a dozen locations, mostly in outer suburbs of its hometown. Company officials have defended their use in general but refused until now to answer questions regarding when and where they would deploy the technology…