Kroger Texas says the spirit of innovation runs through everything the division undertakes. As a result, Houston and Dallas have served as test-and-learn markets for several of Kroger’s national innovations. These include Nuro driverless grocery delivery, a Hispanic concept store and an Asian concept store.
For the Hispanic concept store, Houston was selected as the first test market, as the city is home to the nation’s fourth-largest Hispanic population; the Asian concept store is in Plano, in north Texas, where the local population is 42 percent Asian.
Following these tests, there are now 37 stores in north Texas following one of these ethnic store models, and the findings from the tests are influencing other multicultural designs in regions across the country.
“We want as much as we can possibly hold within our store, all the way from a robust fresh offering to center store aisles expanding, and we’re thinking about multicultural opportunities every day,” said Kroger Texas President Rudy DiPietro. “It’s a huge focus for us in Texas, between the Hispanic population, Asian population, halal and kosher [customers].”
In towns where these residents make up 30 percent or greater of the population, the store’s promotional calendar is built around what’s important to that group.
“The items that we promote need to vary, and certainly the programs, the brands, a lot of different assortments across the total store tends to be heavy on fresh, but there’s a massive center store opportunity across the store also,” he said.
“I’m proud of the work we’ve done to think differently in these stores. And we’re nowhere near done with this. I walked a store last week that is a different iteration with improved merchandising, especially on the fresh side.”
The former Houston division had more experience in marketing to the Hispanic population, while Dallas had more experience with the Asian population. With the shared knowledge between divisions, “our merchants on both sides are able to commingle thinking, and we’re starting to bring those concepts into both places. This is that example where we’re seeking a best practice, identifying … and elevating it.
“We want to create the most convenient and complete shopping experience we can for our customer base – that’s our focus – and we’re going to do that ongoing here in Texas,” DiPietro said.
[RELATED: The Past: 70 Years Strong, Kroger Texas Division Paves Path Of Progress]Bolstering Texas
In 2026, Kroger Texas plans to break ground on new Marketplace locations in McKinney and Fate. A third is expected to be announced later this year. 
In addition, 27 stores will be refreshed, “continuing our commitment to evolution, innovation and enhancing the customer experience,” Kroger says.
The Marketplace format is flexible enough to meet the needs of the customers in a particular area, regardless of their economic status or ethnicity, DiPietro said. Assortments can be tweaked based on the needs of the customer base, and that process is ongoing.
For example, at the Plano store that opened in January 2025, “we have retouched that assortment numerous times just in the last year,” DiPietro said. “And we’ll keep doing that.
“When we open a store, we have a data set that would tell us it should have this type of assortment. From day one, we listen, we investigate, and then we continue to evolve and tweak.
“So, yes, this model can work in numerous different scenarios. And when we talk to developers, it has mass appeal. They’re often excited to see us as their kind of ‘hook’ in a plaza.”
Fueling growth
The majority of Kroger Texas’ stores operate a fuel center on their property – 165 fuel centers at 207 stores – and their importance will only get stronger, according to DiPietro.
Last year, four new fuel centers were added in Dallas, along with one in Houston, and the grocer is “aiming to get more in the ground every day, and every store we build will include a fuel station with north of 20 pumps,” he said.
“It’s a big focus for us. We want the absolute most convenient consumer experience we possibly can create; we want it to be a one-stop-shop where you can fuel up, get your groceries and whatever modality you’re choosing that day, whether it’s pickup, delivery with numerous different delivery options, or obviously an in-store brick-and-mortar experience.
“We see that as our core customer base gets engaged across different modalities, and especially with fuel, the stickiness of the total offering starts to resonate, and their loyalty to us deepens,” DiPietro continued. “Generally, that’s our most loyal customer base. When you’re engaging across different modalities and fuel, you see the value coming back to your family, and you continue to lean into it.
“I’ve been taken by the value of our Kroger Plus program and what actually flows back into your wallet via fuel points,” he added. “I think it’s a best-in-class program, and it’s going to get stronger and better. That’s our intention.”
Ultimately, every move made at Kroger Texas is designed to make life easier for its customers, which leads to loyalty.
“We are pushing Kroger in different ways than maybe they have in the past, all the way down to pharmacy, just trying to make it as convenient as we possibly can, because we know our customer base is extremely time starved,” DiPietro said. “Both parents are working, and they’re trying to be as efficient as they can. We want it to be a joyful experience from a service standpoint. We want it to be as much of a one-stop-shop as we possibly can.
“And if you do that, the value comes back to you.”
[RELATED: Acosta Group Study Finds Shoppers Worried About Artificial Ingredients In Food]Creative solutions for food insecurity
Kroger Texas also is part of a pioneer program to get fresh, affordable groceries into underserved neighborhoods around Dallas.
Called Grocery Connect, the program works this way: Residents order groceries online from Kroger, and Kroger delivers the orders all at once, once a week – without delivery fees – to a Grocery Connect pickup center. Each center provides computer access and staff support to help residents place orders, enroll in SNAP benefits and ensure satisfaction at pickup.
In October 2025, the third Grocery Connect site opened. Located in South Dallas at Bonton Wellness Center, the site joined two others that opened in 2024, at South Dallas Fair Park Innercity Community Development Corporation (ICDC) and the Dallas Bethlehem Center.
There is a designated window for order pickup. At Bonton, it’s every Tuesday from 3-6 p.m.
“For too long, South Dallas has faced a lack of access to fresh, nutritious food, and many in our community have struggled with transportation barriers just to reach the nearest grocery store,” said Mark Jones, president and CEO of Bonton Farms.
“Grocery Connect is an ideal solution that brings the store to the people, places communities at the forefront of where grocery shopping is headed and offers a scalable model for eliminating urban food deserts. Bonton Farms is ecstatic about the impact Grocery Connect will have on the lives of South Dallas families.”
Through Kroger’s fulfillment center in southern Dallas, Grocery Connect customers have access to more than 33,000 products with no delivery fees, service charges or tips. Refrigerated delivery vehicles ensure groceries arrive fresh, including frozen items like ice cream.
DiPietro added, “Using technology and the different modalities we have in our e-commerce space, we’ve created an opportunity [for underserved neighborhoods] to have fresh products. Food is medicine; that’s the thought process there.”
Kroger and the Grocery Connect team are working on ways to reach more residents around the Grocery Connect centers. They have reached out to area pastors to share the information with their parishioners, for example.
“I think we have a lot of opportunity to impact more families with that project… we feel it’s kind of cutting-edge in terms of solving the food insecurity challenge,” DiPietro said.
[RELATED: The Present: Kroger Texas Division Understands What Shoppers Want]Associates key to bringing it all together
Kroger Texas stores play an important role in the economic growth of its communities; associates can find sustainable career pathways in retail, logistics, pharmacy and management, especially as the division continues to open new stores. 
But DiPietro is quick to point out that those opportunities wouldn’t exist in the first place if it weren’t for Kroger Texas’ associates.
“Our 26,000 associates are leaders at store level, are leaders in the field,” he said. “We talk about it as ‘bleeding Kroger blue,’ and the care that we bring every day as a unified Texas team, the communication, the thoughtfulness and both the dedication and the competitive nature that we have in this market, I think is unique.”
While Kroger Texas will continue to pursue differentiation in terms of store experience, product assortment, shopper engagement, digital interaction and more, “the single greatest differentiator, our superpower, is our associates, and you see it every day. You can see and feel the engagement at store level,” DiPietro said.
“Our store team, our leaders, our associates want to help solve that total shop convenience challenge for our customers, and they are so dedicated to the communities they serve. That’s what I’m most proud of, and that’s what we’re doubling down on more than anything.”
That includes an eye toward the future, with Kroger Texas continuing to find new young leaders to bring into the business and put them through a training program that would put them into an assistant store leader role.
That’s how DiPietro learned the business.
“I came out of college, trained for a year across all parts of the organization, and then that turned me out as an assistant store leader. No better way to learn the business; incredibly difficult role but a great leadership opportunity for any young leader.”
Department leaders also are often trained to move into the assistant store leader role, he added, noting that the company enjoys lower-than-normal turnover.
“Folks love to work for Kroger once they find it, and we’re proud of that,” he said.
“We’re going to continue to hire great associates to contribute, and then we’ll still have all that amazing tenure helping to teach and train – bringing that all together into one powerful team of 26,000-plus associates, impacting all these new customers and the existing customers.”
DiPietro said the company gets amazing stories from customers about their in-store experiences. Many of those revolve around a particular associate.
“Often there’s an associate at that store that has impacted them over time, and that’s why they keep coming back. We need to generate more of those stories every day. The more of that we can do, the more we’ll grow, the more love that our customers will have for Kroger.”
4C Foods Corp.
Twang Partners
Associated Wholesale Grocers