6 Big Differences Between Kroger and Meijer Every Ohioan Should Know

Those fuel points you’ve been saving up might not stick around as long as you’d hope.

For Ohioans with a Kroger and a Meijer nearby, small differences like that can add up when groceries already cost so much.

Here’s how the two stores compare before you pick where to shop.

1. Shelf Prices

Kroger and Meijer don’t win on the same items, and a July 2026 price check by a Cincinnati TV station shows it.

Meijer sold ground beef for $6.29 a pound to Kroger’s $6.49.

Flip to an 8-ounce bag of potato chips, and Kroger came in at $1.99 to Meijer’s $3.00.

That Kroger price took a digital coupon and a loyalty card, so you’d need to load the coupon first.

A 24-pack of Coca-Cola ran $14.99 at Meijer and $15.99 at Kroger, or about $12 after Kroger’s 25% card discount.

Ice cream was a tie, at $2.99 for 48 ounces at each store.

So the cheaper cart depends on what you put in it.

Neither chain sweeps it.

2. Gift Card Points

Kroger pays 2 points for every $1 you spend on eligible gift cards.

Kroger’s exclusions list its Family of Companies gift cards and all prepaid reloadable debit cards.

On a $100 eligible gift card, that rate works out to 200 points.

At 100 points for 10 cents off a gallon, those 200 points take 20 cents off each gallon of gas.

Meijer goes the other way, since its June 2025 mPerks release lists gift cards among the purchases that earn no points.

If you buy gift cards for birthdays and holidays, the store you pick decides whether you earn anything.

Choose your store wisely.

3. Delivery Fees

Kroger doesn’t let you pay delivery fees with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards.

Kroger’s delivery FAQ lists a $9.95 standard delivery fee and says fees vary by day and time slot.

Boost members get free delivery on orders of $35 or more.

Without Boost, that means you’d need a different card to pay for delivery.

Read before you check out.

Meijer said in a December 2024 release that customers using SNAP benefits can continue to receive free home delivery in its extended zone.

That zone extends Meijer’s delivery range from an approximate 20-minute radius around its stores to 60 minutes.

4. When Points Expire

Kroger’s Fuel Points expire at the end of the month after you earn them, according to its points program page.

Points you earn on October 3 are gone after November 30.

Depending on the day you earn them, that gives you about one to two months to spend them.

Cardholders of the Kroger Rewards World Elite Mastercard are the exception, since their points don’t expire.

Meijer changed its clock in January 2023, stretching the mPerks points expiration from 45 days to about three months.

By those 2023 numbers, Meijer gave you more time to spend a point than Kroger’s points page allows today.

Timing matters here.

5. Giving at Checkout

Meijer sells a $10 Simply Give donation card at checkout in stores, on Meijer.com, and in its app.

On its six Double Match Days, Meijer turns each $10 into $30 for the store’s local food pantry partner.

Simply Give helps keep shelves stocked at nearly 600 food pantries.

Since 2008, Meijer says, Simply Give has generated more than $100 million in donations.

Kroger’s Community Rewards program asks for no extra money because it applies your regular purchases to a local organization you choose.

You need a Plus Card linked to your digital account to take part.

Kroger donates once a year, and each organization’s share depends on its supporters’ spending compared with all the participating groups.

Both options help.

6. Store Counts

Kroger’s store directory lists 198 grocery stores across 114 cities in Ohio.

Meijer’s May 2026 release puts its Ohio footprint at 59 stores and more than 14,000 team members.

Kroger’s headquarters sits at 1014 Vine Street in Cincinnati, so Ohio is its home state.

By those two counts, that’s more than three Kroger stores for every Meijer.

Kroger’s list includes cities such as Athens, Defiance, and Marietta, so you may find a Kroger in your town first.

The count isn’t close.

What a Prescription Earns

Kroger pays 25 points for each non-federally funded prescription and 75 points for each 90-day script.

Federally funded prescriptions earn 1 point for every $1 you pay out of pocket.

Meijer once rewarded only every fifth prescription, according to Grocery Dive.

The January 2023 mPerks update let every qualifying prescription earn points.

Under the update, each filled prescription would earn 1,000 mPerks points.

If you fill prescriptions at either chain, you earn points, but the two programs award them in different amounts.

The amounts differ.

Where Kroger and Meijer Land at the Same Score

Kroger and Meijer both scored 78 in the American Customer Satisfaction Index’s 2026 supermarket results.

Meijer slipped a point from 79 the year before, and Kroger stayed at 78.

The industry average also landed at 78.

Those 2026 results come from data collected from January through December 2025.

If you’re choosing a store on satisfaction alone, the scores can’t separate them.

You’ll feel the differences above at the register instead.

Call it a tie.

The Geauga Lake Supercenter

Meijer opened a 159,000-square-foot supercenter in Bainbridge Township on May 6, 2026, on the former Geauga Lake amusement park site.

You can use Shop & Scan, Flashfood discounts, and a full-service pharmacy there, according to Meijer’s release.

Another big store.

Kroger has been planning around Ohio too, and Grocery Dive reported its $130 million Cincinnati and Dayton plan in April 2025.