8 Precautions Michiganders Should Take When Shopping at Kroger

If you’re placing a Kroger pickup order for Thanksgiving week, choose your time slot carefully.

Your plans might change, but the order might not change with them.

Here are the precautions Michiganders should take when shopping at Kroger.

1. Card Holds on Online Orders

Kroger may place an authorization hold on your card after you place a pickup or delivery order.

The hold covers your estimated total, which can change with coupons, substitutions, taxes, weighted items or price updates.

That hold isn’t the final charge, but it may reduce your available funds or credit.

Your bank or card issuer decides when any hold is released.

Kroger describes the hold as lasting 3 to 7 business days.

We’d check your balance before a big order, since no chain gets every detail right and Kroger can catch you short.

2. Cash Back Pilot

Cash Back at Kroger is currently a pilot the company is testing, and it may end the program at any time.

If it ends, any available cash balance moves to your Shopper’s Card.

Earnings can go to your PayPal account as soon as you’ve earned $20.00.

Kroger lets you cash out once within a 24-hour period.

PayPal cash outs top out at $99.99 a day.

Treat Cash Back as a bonus rather than a line in your grocery budget, since Kroger can end the pilot whenever it wants.

3. Alt ID Purchase Data

Your Kroger Alt ID works as your virtual card number online and in the store.

Kroger customers typically use a mobile phone number for it.

When you enter it at purchase, Kroger will collect your purchase information and associate it with you or your household.

Kroger may share personal information with companies that support digital marketing, advertising, analytics and measurement.

The privacy policy names states whose residents receive added disclosures, including Indiana, Minnesota and Tennessee, but not Michigan.

If you’d rather not use your phone number, any unused 10-digit number can be your Alt ID.

The number can’t start with 0.

4. Pickup Time Slots

Your Kroger pickup time slot is a one-hour window in which you can arrive to pick up your groceries.

Once you place your order, you can’t change your pickup time or location.

If you order for same-day pickup, you can’t make changes after you submit it.

Next-day orders stay open for edits until midnight the day before.

If you miss your scheduled pickup date, Kroger restocks the items and you place the order again, so choose a window you can hit even if your day runs long.

If your plans change, sign in and cancel the pending order from My Purchases instead.

You can only use paper coupons on a pickup order in person at the time of pickup, and that may increase your pickup time.

5. Delivery Price Changes

Kroger says prices on delivery orders may differ from prices for the same products in its physical stores.

The reasons include fulfillment store location, day of delivery, in-store promotions and digital coupons.

Certain promotions and coupons, including paper coupons, may not be available or accepted online.

Compare a few staples against the store price before you check out, and don't assume every coupon will apply.

If your final total drops because of price changes, Kroger may refund the difference to your card within 24 to 48 hours of delivery.

Out-of-stock items and substitutions don't count toward that refund.

In a pricing error, Kroger may cancel an order and correct the price.

6. Alcohol ID Checks

Alcohol in a Kroger pickup order means bringing a government-issued ID.

If someone else collects your order, they need to provide a valid ID for any age-restricted items.

For delivery, be ready to show your ID when the order arrives if it includes alcohol.

Check delivery availability on Kroger's site before you build an order around beer, wine or spirits.

At this time, Kroger's ability to deliver them varies by state, so don't assume your address qualifies.

7. Deleting Your Account

Deleting your Kroger digital account doesn't clear everything.

Your purchase history, digital coupon credits, reward points, store credit and Boost membership benefits remain on the account.

Read that list before you delete, since changing what stays means calling Customer Service or visiting the in-store Customer Service desk.

You can no longer sign in to Kroger.com or the Kroger app, and your pharmacy account, email preferences, lists, cart items and recipes go with it.

Deleting isn't a do-not-sell privacy request, either.

Emails may take up to two weeks to stop after you change your preferences.

8. Digital Coupon Receipt Lines

A Kroger receipt marks digital coupons as "ecpn," with the discount below the qualifying item.

Look for an ecpn line under each item you clipped a coupon for before you leave the register.

If a discount doesn't apply and you notice at the register, Kroger says to ask the cashier for assistance.