How many employees does Kroger have? Headcount by fiscal year

This page is for sellers, suppliers, analysts and anyone who needs a Kroger headcount they can cite: the latest number, what it counts and how it has moved. Every number here comes from Kroger's annual report on Form 10-K or other documents it filed with the SEC. Kroger's fiscal year ends on the Saturday nearest January 31, so fiscal 2025 ran from February 2, 2025 to January 31, 2026.

Kroger employees by year

Kroger reports its headcount once a year, at the end of the fiscal year, in the Human Capital Management section of its 10-K.

Kroger rounds to the nearest thousand and uses "approximately", "over", "nearly" or "more than", so the changes (our arithmetic) are approximate. Fiscal 2023 had 53 weeks. Kroger's quarterly reports don't give a headcount, so the fiscal 2025 10-K holds the latest company figure until the fiscal 2026 10-K, due around the end of March 2027.

What the number includes

• Full-time and part-time employees together. The 10-K says "As of January 31, 2026, Kroger employed more than 403,000 full- and part-time employees." It doesn't split them, so this is a count of people, not full-time equivalents.
• Mostly union-represented. "More than two-thirds of our associates are covered by collective bargaining agreements negotiated with local unions," and "There are approximately 350 such agreements, usually with terms of three to five years." The fiscal 2024 10-K gave approximately 64% and the fiscal 2021 10-K approximately 65%, with about 310 agreements.
• Stores, plants and support. At January 31, 2026 Kroger operated "2,697 supermarkets, of which 2,250 had pharmacies and 1,731 had fuel centers," in 35 states and the District of Columbia, and owned 33 food production plants. That works out to about 150 employees per supermarket (our rough arithmetic, since the total also includes plants, distribution and offices).
• US only. All of Kroger's supermarkets are in the US, so there is no international split.
• A year-end count, not an average.

What changed and why

Fiscal 2020 and 2021: peak and fall

Headcount reached approximately 465,000 at the end of fiscal 2020, which ran from February 2020 to January 2021, then fell about 45,000 the next year. The filings we reviewed don't attribute the swing to a specific cause.

Fiscal 2022 to 2024: the Albertsons years

Kroger spent much of this period on its planned merger with Albertsons; its fiscal 2025 10-K discusses the termination of the merger agreement. In an April 2024 merger filing Kroger said it "has added more than 100,000 good-paying union jobs since 2012." Headcount still fell about 16,000 in fiscal 2023 and about 5,000 in fiscal 2024.

Fiscal 2025: store closures

On June 20, 2025 Kroger reported "an impairment charge of $100 million related to the planned closing of approximately 60 stores" over 18 months, and said "Kroger will offer roles in other stores to all associates currently employed at affected stores." The fiscal 2025 10-K also notes that it has "closed certain customer fulfillment centers." Headcount ended the year about 6,000 lower.

Sales per employee

Kroger's fiscal 2025 sales were $147,642 million. Divided by the year-end headcount, that's $147,642 million ÷ 403,000 = about $366,000 per employee (our calculation). Because the 10-K says "more than 403,000", the true figure is slightly lower.

The count includes part-time staff, so the ratio is much lower than it would be on a full-time-equivalent basis. Compare it only with retailers that count people the same way, such as Costco. For a wider comparison, see the largest employers in the US.

Selling to a company this size

General guidance on how grocers of 400,000 people buy, not a description of Kroger's internal processes.

• Merchandising and operations are different doors. Products for the shelf go through category and buying teams; services and equipment for stores, plants and distribution go through operations, facilities or IT.
• Think per store. With about 2,700 supermarkets, a saving of a few hours a week per store adds up fast. Price and pitch per location.
• Mind the union contracts. With most associates under local agreements, changes to scheduling, staffing or how work is done touch labor relations. Raise it early.
• Start with a banner or division. Kroger trades under many local banners. A pilot in one can become the reference for the next.
• Name the people. Work out who signs, who uses and who can block. Our guide to selling to retailers covers how retail buying works.

Mapping which team owns your problem is most of the work in an account this large. Bebop researches each account and suggests who to talk to and the angle to open with; check what it finds against the company's filings.

How to check Kroger's headcount yourself

1. Search SEC EDGAR for Kroger Co (CIK 56873) and open the latest 10-K, filed each March or April.
2. In Item 1, Business, find Human Capital Management. The first sentence gives the employee count and date; the next paragraphs give the union coverage.
3. Item 1 also gives the store, pharmacy, fuel center and plant counts.
4. Before comparing with another retailer, check whether it counts people (as Kroger does) or full-time equivalents.

Next step: see how Kroger compares with other grocers on our list of the largest grocery companies.