Kroger

The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR), commonly known as Kroger, is a major American retailer headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, where it was founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883. As one of the largest supermarket operators in the United States, the publicly traded company reported approximately $150 billion in revenue for fiscal year 2023 and employed around 414,000 people as of February 2024. Kroger's market capitalization was approximately $40.7 billion as of May 2026.

Kroger's primary operations consist of approximately 2,700 supermarkets and multi-department stores across the U.S. under dozens of banner names, including Kroger, Ralphs, Dillons, and Harris Teeter. The company's business is predominantly grocery retail, supplemented by 1,700 supermarket fuel centers and 2,270 pharmacies. Kroger also operates 32 food manufacturing facilities that produce its private-label "Our Brands" products, which are sold in its stores. The company's diverse store formats range from combination food and drug stores to larger "marketplace" stores offering general merchandise like apparel and home goods.

Based on the provided data, Kroger is an operating company that has been a defendant in patent litigation. The company has no record as a plaintiff, but it has been named as a defendant in one tracked case. This posture is typical for large, product- and service-oriented corporations, which are often targets for patent assertion entities.

The single tracked case, Alpha Modus, Corp. v. Walgreens et al., highlights this defendant-only posture. The plaintiff, Alpha Modus, is an entity focused on monetizing its portfolio of patents related to AI-driven retail technology. It has filed numerous infringement lawsuits against a wide range of major retailers, including Walgreens, Lowe's, and Kroger, often in the Eastern District of Texas, a venue known for being favorable to patent plaintiffs. The lawsuits generally allege that retailers' use of in-store technologies for shopper analytics, personalized marketing, and inventory management infringes on Alpha Modus's patents.