{"id":29732,"date":"2026-09-12T16:51:54","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T11:51:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/?p=29732"},"modified":"2026-09-12T16:52:01","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T11:52:01","slug":"kroger-trims-sales-target-as-shoppers-pull-back-sticks-to-profit-forecast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/?p=29732","title":{"rendered":"Kroger trims sales target as shoppers pull back, sticks to profit forecast"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

U.S. grocer \u200bKroger cut its annual identical sales forecast on Friday, citing slower consumer spending, but maintained its \u200cprofit target as cost controls and higher-margin businesses helped cushion the impact.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The forecast cut echoes recent warnings from bigger rival Walmart and raises concerns about the health of the American consumer as they prioritize value amid economic uncertainty, even on everyday purchases such as groceries \u200band household items.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, shares of the company reversed premarket losses to rise about 3% in morning trading as \u200binvestors looked past the sales guidance and focused on Kroger\u2019s earnings beat and confidence in \u2060full-year profitability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA near flat headline comp (comparable sales figure) is further fuel to the \u2018Food Fight\u2019 fire, yet Kroger appears \u200bto be managing the choppy backdrop relatively well given the reiterated profit guide,\u201d Evercore ISI analyst Greg Melich said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since \u200bnew Kroger CEO Greg Foran joined in February, he has focused on tightening sourcing, simplifying operations as well as keeping prices low, accelerating store openings and expanding online sales with faster delivery and AI-driven personalized shopping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On an adjusted basis, the company posted quarterly profit \u200bof $1.09 per share, compared with estimates of $1.06, helped by progress in its higher margin e-commerce and retail media \u200bbusinesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kroger executives on its earnings call also said demand at its pumps outpaced the broader industry as customers cashed in on its \u200ctweaked \u2060rewards points system to save money amid higher prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. consumer sentiment, however, weakened in August and retail sales unexpectedly declined in July for the first time in nine months, as middle- and lower-income households increasingly prioritized essentials and value purchases in the face of persistent inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCustomers remained under pressure and that has affected the industry broadly, unit growth has slowed \u200bsince the start of the \u200byear,\u201d Foran said on \u2060the call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kroger also said lingering effects from a cyclospora outbreak on its produce reduced second-quarter identical sales excluding fuel by about 35 basis points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It expects full-year identical sales without \u200bfuel to increase in the range of 0.2% to 0.8%, compared with its \u200bprior forecast of \u2060a 1% to 2% rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company\u2019s updated sales forecast includes a roughly 140-basis-point headwind from the Inflation Reduction Act, which lowered prescription drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries, impacting revenue at its pharmacies. Walmart in its recent quarterly results also flagged a \u2060similar hit, \u200bafter reporting its slowest sales growth in six years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second-quarter identical sales \u200bgrowth for the three months ended August 15 slowed to 0.2% from 3.4% a year ago, and missed estimates of 0.9% growth, according to \u200bdata compiled by LSEG.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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U.S. grocer \u200bKroger cut its annual identical sales forecast on Friday, citing slower consumer spending, but maintained its \u200cprofit target as cost controls and higher-margin businesses helped cushion the impact. The forecast cut echoes recent warnings from bigger rival Walmart and raises concerns about the health of the American consumer as they prioritize value amid […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","inline_featured_image":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"no","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_3859443944190656_798604363342440":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[{"account":"facebook_3859443944190656_798604363342440","service":"facebook","timestamp":1789213942,"status":"success"}],"rop_publish_now_status":"done","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29732"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29734,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29732\/revisions\/29734"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}