Kroger Borrows Walmart's Everyday-Low-Price Playbook

Kroger, now run by a former Walmart executive, is applying Walmart's everyday-low-price approach to its turnaround, and its shares closed at 60.79 on Sept. 29, 2026, up 1.84% on the day while Walmart fell 1.77% to 106.80.

Kroger (KR) is being run by a former Walmart executive, and he is bringing the pricing philosophy he learned there with him. According to WSJ US Business, the hard-charging chief executive has made everyday low prices — the discipline of holding shelf prices down permanently rather than swinging between promotions — the organizing idea of Kroger's turnaround.

That is a bigger change than it sounds. High-low pricing, the traditional supermarket model, runs on weekly circulars, loyalty-card discounts and deep temporary cuts on a rotating handful of items. Everyday low pricing, the model Walmart (WMT) built its business on, does the opposite: fewer promotions, flatter prices, and a bet that shoppers will stop comparing and simply come back. Switching from one to the other is not a marketing decision. It reaches into vendor negotiations, private-label assortment, store labor scheduling, distribution costs and the way a grocer forecasts demand week to week.

Why a grocer would give up the weekly circular

High-low pricing makes a store's margin look better on paper because full-price weeks subsidize discount weeks. But it also trains customers to wait, and it creates volatile demand that is expensive to supply. A promoted item spikes, the warehouse scrambles, the shelf goes empty, and the shopper who came for that item leaves annoyed.

Everyday low pricing trades headline margin for predictability. Flat prices produce steadier volumes, steadier volumes produce cheaper logistics, and cheaper logistics fund the next round of price investment. That loop is the entire argument. It only works at scale, and it only works if the company can absorb a stretch of thinner margins while shoppers notice the change. Grocery is a business measured in pennies per dollar of sales, so the transition period is genuinely uncomfortable — and it is the part investors will be watching.

For a management team importing the approach from the outside, the credibility question is whether the organization can actually run it. Everyday low pricing demands a cost structure to match. You cannot hold prices down permanently unless you have permanently taken cost out: out of sourcing, out of shrink, out of store labor hours, out of the supply chain between the distribution center and the shelf.

How the two stocks closed on Sept. 29

The market data below reflects the last trade of the session on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, at 20:00 GMT. Markets were closed at the time of writing.

Kroger (KR) finished at 60.79, up 1.84% from a prior close of 59.69, in a day range of 59.79 to 60.89.
Walmart (WMT) finished at 106.80, down 1.77% from a prior close of 108.73, in a day range of 105.35 to 107.90.

That is a gap of roughly 3.61 percentage points between the two on the day — an illustrative spread derived from the two session moves, not a trend. One session tells you nothing about a multi-year pricing strategy. But it does show that on a day when the broad market drifted, the two names moved in opposite directions rather than trading as a single grocery basket.

The benchmarks were mixed and quiet. The S&P 500 proxy (SPY) closed at $764.20, down 0.18%. The Dow 30 proxy (DIA) closed at $512.88, down 0.22%. The Nasdaq 100 proxy (QQQ) closed at $737.93, up 0.19%. Against that backdrop, Kroger's gain and Walmart's decline were both larger than the index moves, in each case by a meaningful multiple.

What the price pivot has to prove

The strategy will be judged on a small number of disclosed metrics, and they are the ones to read in future quarters rather than in a single day's quote.

Identical-store sales excluding fuel

This is the cleanest read on whether price cuts are buying volume. If prices come down and identical sales hold or rise, the elasticity is working. If prices come down and identical sales are flat, the company has simply given margin away.

Gross margin rate and where it is going

Expect compression during a price investment. The relevant question is whether management can say the compression is deliberate and funded — by sourcing savings, private-label mix or supply-chain cost takeout — rather than a response to competitive pressure it did not choose.

Traffic versus basket

Everyday low pricing is supposed to bring more people through the door more often. Sales growth driven by transaction counts is the healthy version. Sales growth driven purely by a bigger basket, with flat or falling visits, suggests the pricing message has not landed with the customers who left.

Private label penetration

Store brands are the margin cushion that makes a low-price public posture survivable. A rising share of own-brand units is the structural signal that the strategy has a funding source rather than just a slogan.

The competitive squeeze around the middle of the market

The pressure on conventional supermarkets does not come only from Walmart. It comes from hard discounters on one side and from club and mass formats on the other, with the traditional grocer left defending a middle that shoppers increasingly bypass. Choosing to fight on price is a choice to fight on the discounters' terms. It has the virtue of being clear — customers understand a lower shelf price instantly, in a way they do not understand a loyalty-tier structure — and the risk of being unwinnable if the cost base cannot support it.

There is also a strategic irony worth naming. Walmart's own recent evolution has leaned heavily on things that are not price: delivery speed, marketplace assortment, advertising revenue and membership. A grocer adopting everyday low prices in 2026 is adopting the foundation of the Walmart model, not its growth engine. The foundation is the part that requires the most operational grinding and pays back the slowest.

What to watch next

The near-term tells are ordinary and unglamorous: whether the company quantifies the size of its price investment, whether it names the cost offsets funding it, and whether identical sales move before margins recover. Investors should also watch what vendors say. Everyday low pricing usually arrives with tougher terms for suppliers, and consumer packaged goods companies tend to describe that pressure plainly on their own earnings calls, often before the retailer does.

For now the facts are narrow: a Walmart-trained chief executive, a pricing philosophy imported wholesale, and a stock that closed at 60.79 on the day the strategy was described. The rest is execution, and execution in grocery shows up in quarters, not in sessions.

Key facts

Kroger (KR) last close: 60.79, +1.84% — as of Sept. 29, 2026, 20:00 GMT
Walmart (WMT) last close: 106.80, -1.77% — as of Sept. 29, 2026, 20:00 GMT
Strategy: Everyday low prices imported from Walmart into Kroger's turnaround
Leadership: Kroger led by a former Walmart executive described as hard-charging

Frequently asked questions

What is everyday low pricing?

Everyday low pricing means a retailer holds shelf prices down permanently instead of rotating deep temporary discounts through weekly circulars and loyalty offers. It trades headline gross margin for steadier demand, which makes supply and staffing cheaper to plan. Walmart built its business on the model, and Kroger's chief executive, a former Walmart executive, is applying it to Kroger's turnaround.

How did Kroger and Walmart shares close on Sept. 29, 2026?

As of the last trade at 20:00 GMT on Sept. 29, 2026, Kroger closed at 60.79, up 1.84% from a prior close of 59.69, with a day range of 59.79 to 60.89. Walmart closed at 106.80, down 1.77% from a prior close of 108.73, with a day range of 105.35 to 107.90. Markets were closed at publication.

Why would a supermarket abandon weekly promotions?

Promotional pricing trains shoppers to wait for deals and creates volatile demand that is expensive to supply, causing stockouts on advertised items. Flat everyday prices produce steadier volumes, which lowers distribution and labor costs, and those savings can fund further price cuts. The trade-off is a stretch of thinner margins while customers notice the change.

Which Kroger metrics show whether the strategy is working?

The key disclosures are identical-store sales excluding fuel, the gross margin rate, the split between transaction counts and average basket size, and private-label penetration. Rising traffic alongside lower prices suggests the pricing message landed. Falling margins with flat identical sales would suggest the company gave away profit without buying volume.

How did the broad market perform the same day?

Benchmarks were mixed and subdued on Sept. 29, 2026. The S&P 500 proxy SPY closed at $764.20, down 0.18%. The Dow 30 proxy DIA closed at $512.88, down 0.22%. The Nasdaq 100 proxy QQQ closed at $737.93, up 0.19%. Both Kroger's gain and Walmart's decline were larger than any of those index moves.

Does adopting Walmart's pricing model guarantee Kroger closes the gap?

No. Everyday low pricing only works if a retailer permanently removes cost from sourcing, shrink, store labor and distribution to support the lower prices. It is the foundation of Walmart's model rather than its current growth engines, which include delivery, marketplace, advertising and membership. Results in grocery appear over quarters, not single trading sessions.

Sources

Why Kroger Is Trying to Be More Like Walmart — WSJ US Business

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