Kroger Vs. Walmart Vs. Amazon: We Built the Same Grocery List to Find the True Winner
By Marcus Vance
Online grocery tests live or die in the out-of-stock queue. A low-priced basket is worthless if half the items never make it to your car. In our trial run, the store brand 32-ounce whole-milk vanilla yogurt went missing from both the Kroger and Walmart inventories.
Walmart substituted the out-of-stock store yogurt with a 32-ounce tub of Chobani Greek Yogurt. Walmart's long-standing policy shields the customer: if they substitute a higher-priced national brand for an out-of-stock item, they charge you the lower price of the original item you selected. You get premium goods without the markup. If the substitution costs less, they pass the savings along.
Kroger operates under a comparable guarantee, matching or discounting the substitute price to ensure you never pay extra for their inventory shortfall. However, the Kroger app gives shoppers much granular control prior to collection. Within the Kroger app order tracking screen, users can toggle substitution preferences on individual lines: allow substitution, select preferred alternative brands, or refuse substitutions outright. Amazon Fresh simply marked the yogurt unavailable and removed the charge, forcing an extra trip to another grocer later in the week.
Marcus Vance is a cybersecurity auditor and technology writer dedicated to educating the public about online safety, data privacy regulations, enterprise security, and emerging cyber threats.
