Paul Sancya/AP
- Kroger has over 2,700 stores in the US and employs approximately 430,000 people.
- The company's 2022 non-fuel sales were $127.6 billion across more than a dozen subsidiary brands.
- Kroger's average customer is a married suburban Baby Boomer who earns $80,000 per year, per Numerator analysis.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Kroger is the largest supermarket chain in the US, with 2022 non-fuel sales of $127.6 billion across more than a dozen brands including Kroger, Harris Teeter, King Sooper, and others.
Walmart sells groceries too, and has a larger share of the grocery market at 21%, but the mega retailer is not strictly considered a "supermarket" since more than 15% of its sales come from non-grocery items.
Founded in 1883 and based in Cincinnati, Ohio, there now are over 2,700 Kroger-owned stores across 35 states and D.C. employing roughly 430,000 workers. The workforce is down from 465,000 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the company said.
The company is also in the process of settling a $24.6 billion purchase of Albertsons, which would nearly double the number of stores and workers under its umbrella. The combined companies' market share would still come in second after Walmart's.
Slightly less than half of all US shoppers are Kroger customers, according to data from the analytics firm Numerator prepared for Insider.
Numerator found that Kroger's typical shopper is a married suburban Baby Boomer who has at least some college education and an annual income of more than $80,000. Additionally, they typically live in two-person households and have a roughly equal likelihood of being white or Black.
The typical customer visits Kroger at least once a week — about 53 trips per year — and picks up 12 products for a total cost of about $46.95 per trip, Numerator found.
The company enjoys a high degree of customer loyalty, with more than 87% of 2021 shoppers returning in 2022, and it earns a new shopper for each one that leaves.
Kroger offers more than 15,000 private label items, and the typical shopper often prefers to buy from that selection. They also fill their carts with products from Kraft, Coca-Cola, Lays, and Dole.
Some of their favorite categories to buy from the store include frozen seafood, baking chips and bars, as well as dish and laundry detergents. While 8.6% of a Kroger shopper's total dollars are spent at Kroger, they spend more at Walmart with 10.9%.
Read more typical shopper profiles:
- Walmart: A 59-year-old white suburban woman earning $80,000 a year
- Costco: A 39-year-old Asian American woman earning more than $125,000 a year
- Target: A millennial suburban mom with a household income of $80,000
- Whole Foods: A highly educated West Coast millennial woman earning $80,000
- Amazon: A college-educated married woman in the South earning $80,000
- Dollar General: An older rural worker with a high school education and an income of less than $40,000
- Trader Joe's: A younger, married, college-educated person earning over $80,000