KROGER is a popular store but there are some little-known facts about the retail giant.
One even involves why there may be a hidden outlet you don't know about where you live.
Kroger is the largest supermarket chain in the country by retail sales, and is the second largest retailer nationwide, according to Statista.
It's particularly popular in the South and Midwest of the country.
In fact, in six states, including Tennessee, it ranks as the most popular grocery chain, per USA Today.
Here are five secret gems of information about the grocery giant you may not have known.
1. What's in a name?
Unlike a Wamart or Target, you may be shopping at a Kroger store without even realizing it.
How is that even possible, you may ask yourself – but it is.
That's because Kroger stores actually go by a bunch of different names. What you call it largely depends on where you live.
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3It operates nearly 2,800 stores in 35 states under two dozen banners and has annual sales of more than $132.5billion, according to the company.
Some of the store names they use include, Ralphs, Mariano's, Dillons, Smith's, Pay Less, Owen's, King Soopers, Harris Teeter, QFC, City Market, Pick 'n' Save and Metro Market.
Apart from the grocery stores, they also operate multi-department stores under the Fred Meyer moniker.
2. It's a trendsetter
The company opened its first store in Ohio in 1868 and in 1916 it introduced self-service shopping for the first time, according to GoBankingRates.com.
Customers could browse in person, choose from stocked inventory and take them home with them, as opposed to waiting for the delivery.
Other stores quickly caught on to the trend, which remains popular more than a century later.
3. Pandemic player
In 2017, Kroger sales hit an all-time high of $123.2billion before slipping slightly in the two years before the pandemic.
However, in 2020 sales took off surpassing $132billion, per Yahoo.
Part of the reason for its prime pandemic positioning was Kroger's ability to adapt quickly to changing needs.
In June 2020, CNBC reported that Kroger's e-commerce operations had grown by 92% in the first quarter of the pandemic's first year.
In fact, in 2021 Kroger's CEO said the company aimed to double its digital sales by the end of 2023 to about $20billion, per CNBC.
4. Invests in its workers
Per its website, it made strategic long-term investments in its workforce last year by:
- Increasing Kroger Family of Companies' average hourly wage to $17 and average hourly rate to over $22 with comprehensive benefits factored in
- Providing $5.5million to support associates through unexpected hardships and disaster relief through Helping Hands Fund
- Named one of the Best Places to Work for LGBTQ Equality for the fourth consecutive year on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's 2022 Corporate Equality Index.
5. Fueling up
Kroger is also becoming a big player in the fuel industry.
At a time when summer gas prices have been at record highs, that is a lucrative sector for the brand.
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Kroger first started selling fuel at its convenience stores in 1983 when it merged with Dillons, per Yahoo.
Kroger branched out to offer gas to drivers at its grocery stores in 1998. Today you can fill up at every Kroger grocery store in America.
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