The News
Kroger will put RFID tags in more than 2,300 stores by 2029. A pilot in the bakeries of about 1,500 stores has already cut waste in half.
In the pilot, Kroger reads 98% of tagged items and counts inventory nearly 70% faster.
“That is a better store routine, less counting, better information, lower waste,” said Mark Ibbotson, Kroger’s chief store operations officer.
The details
Suppliers get camera data. Kroger shares data from its computer vision systems with suppliers to keep shelves stocked and lift sales.
An AI tool ties the store data together. It connects 20 data pipelines and shows every item in every store. It mixes RFID reads with sales, inventory and sell-through data to flag gaps earlier.
The bakery work started in 2024 with Avery Dennison, as the first step into Kroger’s fresh departments.
Kroger has pulled back from big automated warehouses. In 2025, it said it expected about $2.6 billion in charges to close three automated fulfillment centers, in Pleasant Prairie, Wis; Frederick, Md; and Groveland, Fla. It has since scaled back its Ocado partnership.
One new automated site, in Franklin, Ky, is due in 2028 to serve Nashville and Louisville.
My notes
Kroger’s suppliers will see the same empty shelves Kroger sees. With the camera data, a supplier and its Kroger buyer work from one record of which items were missing and where. That makes it harder for either side to argue about whether a gap started in the store or upstream.
The 50% waste cut comes from bakery alone. All three pilot numbers come from the department where Kroger started in 2024. Packaged goods, the aisles most suppliers sell into, are not in the results.
What’s next
Kroger plans RFID in more than 2,300 stores by 2029. The Franklin automated site is due in 2028.
(Photo: Missvain / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0)
