Consumer Staples
85
out of 100. Number 1 of 512, worst.
Just by using kroger.com or the Kroger app you give up your right to sue Kroger in court, to a jury trial, and to join or start a class action.
Kroger’s website terms generally require individual arbitration and waive class actions.
Context and exceptions. Small-claims cases, intellectual-property claims and personal bodily-injury claims have exceptions. A mandatory 60-day informal process applies before covered arbitration.
Arbitration. Website & App Terms, §19.1
An available 30-day Boost trial converts to the selected paid plan unless cancelled. Kroger says it sends no separate trial-ending notice unless legally required.
Context and exceptions. Plans may be monthly or annual. Auto-renewal can be disabled on the membership page; refund rights depend on timing and use.
Subscriptions. Boost Terms, Free Trial / Auto-Renewal
9 clauses and findings from the draft archive, dated 1 October 2026. The plain English comes first; the small print is the company's own words.
Just by using kroger.com or the Kroger app you give up your right to sue Kroger in court, to a jury trial, and to join or start a class action. Every dispute goes to private individual arbitration instead.
You and Kroger agree that all Disputes (defined below) shall be resolved by final and binding individual arbitration before a neutral arbitrator instead of in a court by a judge or jury, and you agree that we and you are each waiving the right to trial by a jury. ... YOU AGREE THAT ANY ARBITRATION UNDER THESE TERMS & CONDITIONS OF USE WILL TAKE PLACE ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS; CLASS ARBITRATION AND CLASS ACTIONS ARE NOT PERMITTED, AND YOU ARE AGREEING TO GIVE UP THE ABILITY TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS ACTION.
Website & App Terms & Conditions of Use (Last Updated: September 9, 2026), §19.1
Before you can even start arbitration, you must mail a personally-signed dispute notice to Kroger's Law Department in Cincinnati and then wait out a mandatory 60-day 'informal resolution' period — skip it and your claim gets thrown out.
For a period of 60 days from the date of receipt of a completed notice from the other party, you and we will work together using reasonable efforts to try to resolve the Dispute. ... Compliance with this informal dispute resolution process is mandatory and a condition precedent to initiating arbitration, and the arbitrator shall dismiss any arbitration demand filed before completion of this informal dispute resolution process.
Website & App Terms & Conditions of Use (Last Updated: September 9, 2026), §19.1
Boost's 30-day free trial requires your card up front, converts to a paid annual membership automatically, and Kroger explicitly says it will NOT warn you that the trial is ending or that you've started being charged.
Your Membership Fee payment along with applicable taxes will be charged to your chosen payment method for the Boost membership you selected at the time of your registering for the Free Trial immediately following expiration of the Free Trial, unless cancelled in accordance with the instructions for cancellation below. ... You will not receive a separate notice that your free trial is about to end or has ended, or that your paid subscription to Boost has begun, unless required by law in particular jurisdictions or instances.
Boost Membership Terms & Conditions (Updated: 6/24/2026), 'Free Trial'
Boost auto-renews every year at the then-current price by default, and once a renewal hits you get a refund only if you cancel within 7 days AND haven't placed a single delivery order — otherwise your money is gone and cancellation is done only by phone.
UNLESS YOU CANCEL, BY DEFAULT ... YOUR BOOST MEMBERSHIP WILL AUTOMATICALLY RENEW, AND THE APPLICABLE MEMBERSHIP FEE ALONG WITH APPLICABLE TAXES WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY CHARGED TO YOU AT THE TIME OF RENEWAL WITH A CREDIT OR DEBIT CARD ON FILE. ... You may cancel your Boost membership ... within the first seven (7) calendar days of your paid Boost membership renewal term and receive a refund of the Boost membership fee you paid, but only if you have not placed any delivery orders using your Boost membership. If you cancel at any other time, you will not receive a refund.
Boost Membership Terms & Conditions (Updated: 6/24/2026), 'Auto-Renewal'
Kroger openly admits its shopper data — identifiers, purchase histories, even inferences it derives about you — counts as a 'sale' under California law, going to ad-tech firms, social networks, data brokers and marketers. It even feeds your shopper profile to a single unnamed data broker.
We have sold or shared personal information ... In cases where we have sold or shared personal information, we have done so for the following purposes: ... For Interest-Based Advertising including cross-context behavioral advertising purposes ... Identifiers: AdTech companies, social networks, data brokers, technology/SaaS providers, analytics providers, marketing vendors, identity resolution providers, other businesses involved in our cobranded offerings. ... Commercial information [purchase histories]: AdTech companies, social networks, data brokers ... Geolocation (non-precise) ... Inferences from personal information collected: AdTech companies, social networks, data broker(s)* ... (*) We make inferences available to a single data broker who is permitted to use them for aggregated reporting and insights.
What you buy with your Kroger loyalty card can be handed to the bank behind Kroger's co-branded credit card to decide whether you get the card and what your credit limit is. There is an opt-out, but the data flow is on by default.
Automated decision making technology may be used by a business supporting our cobranded credit card to assist with evaluating your eligibility for the card, including for underwriting or creditworthiness purposes. Kroger does not use ADMT to make these decisions. However, we may make certain purchase transaction information available to that business for their use for this purpose, where permitted by law. This use of automated decision making may affect whether you receive an offer for our cobranded credit card or the terms of that offer, such as your credit limit.
Kroger Family of Companies Privacy Notice (Last Updated: September 9, 2026), 'ADMT Pre-Use Notice'
Kroger can rewrite the rules whenever it wants, changes take effect the moment they're posted, and it doesn't have to notify you — just keep using the site and you've 'agreed'.
Kroger reserves the right to change or modify these Terms at any time and in our sole discretion. Any changes to these Terms will be effective immediately upon being posted to this page and updating the 'Last Updated' date at the top of this page. ... Your continued use of the Kroger Sites will confirm your acceptance of the revised Terms. ... We may in our discretion change these Boost Terms (or any other of our terms and conditions) without notice to you. All changes are effective immediately when we post them.
There's no fixed delete-by date — Kroger keeps your data as long as it considers 'reasonably necessary,' and its financial-services arm keeps sharing your info even after you stop being a customer.
We will keep your personal information for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected or for purposes that are compatible with the purposes that we have previously disclosed. ... We keep personal information associated with your rewards account for as long as you remain a customer or as otherwise needed for lawful and disclosed purposes. ... If you are a new customer, we can begin sharing your information 30 days from the date we sent this notice. When you are no longer our customer, we continue to share your information as described in this notice.
Some stores run facial-recognition cameras and license-plate readers on shoppers (no public list of which stores), the site can record your keystrokes and mouse movements, and if anything goes wrong your maximum payout is capped at $100.
Biometric information (in select locations only) such as facial recognition data, when you enter our stores for security purposes... We provide notice at the point of entry in locations where we collect biometric information. ... Our websites are for a general audience... Both versions also describe technology that can record keystrokes, cursor movements, scrolling, and clicks on Kroger's websites. ... SHALl NOT EXCEED $100.00 USD. [full: 'OUR COLLECTIVE LIABILITY FOR ANY AND ALL DAMAGES, LOSSES, AND CAUSES OF ACTION ... SHALL NOT EXCEED $100.00 USD.']
Documents read directly from Kroger Family of Companies official domains. Privacy Notice PDF ('Kroger Family of Companies Privacy Notice', Last Updated: September 9, 2026) fetched from qfc.com content CDN (same document family as kroger.com). Website & App Terms of Use PDF (Last Updated: September 9, 2026) fetched from qfc.com content CDN. Boost Membership Terms & Conditions (Updated: 6/24/2026) read from kroger.com/pr/boost/terms-and-conditions. Financial Services Consumer Privacy Notice read from kroger.com/i/privacy-policy/financial-products. The kroger.com/i/privacy-policy landing page itself timed out on fetch (RECV_TIMEOUT); I used the official PDF instead, not a third-party mirror. The advocacy site krogerhurtsfamilies.com was used only as corroborating analysis, not as a quote source.
These notes come from the original draft and are not independent verification.