“Just keep it in your pants Greg, and we’ll be just fine…” -Kroger board before the introductory press conference

Alright, Midwesterners, you can breathe again. Every Walmart hater’s favorite grocery chain (and the undisputed champion of wholesome, heartland-coded commercials) officially has adult supervision back in the building.

And trust me, you may be having a rough start to your week… but unless you're one of Elon’s baby mama’s, you definitely haven't had a more eventful year than the executive suite at Kroger.

After nearly twelve months of an empty executive suite, Kroger finally picked a new CEO. And they didn’t exactly grab some plucky internal lifer who’s been optimizing yogurt endcaps since 2003. They went full “bring in the adult.” Meet Greg Foran… former Walmart fixer, former airline boss, and now the guy tasked with pretty much hovering over the safety switch as the grocery behemoth runs on autopilot.

If you’re asking how Kroger managed to land here, the answer has very little to do with selling groceries and a lot to do with a scandal that’s since earned the nickname The Kroger Files.

(Source: CNN)

Kroger’s last CEO, Rodney McMullen, got the boot back in March after a board investigation concluded his personal conduct didn’t exactly line up with company policy. Translation: Rodney likely role played Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky with his secretary (allegedly).

This all went down shortly after Kroger yeeted its $25B Albertsons merger into the “hopes and dreams” file… a deal McMullen pushed hard as a way to fight inflation and generally win the “grocery hunger games.”

Unfortunately for Rodney, Regulators disagreed. Unions were furious. The deal died. And McMullen was soon packing up his office plants.

And that’s where ole Greg comes in… If Kroger wanted someone who’s seen chaos before, they found their guy.

Foran’s not new to fixing big, messy operations. He ran Walmart U.S. from 2014 to 2019 and somehow managed to deliver 20 straight quarters of comparable sales growth, which doesn’t happen unless the basics are nailed.

(Source: CNBC)

After that, he spent five years running Air New Zealand… an airline, which means he’s already dealt with logistics nightmares, angry customers, tight margins, and systems that unravel when one thing goes sideways.

That experience carries weight. It’s the kind of resume that tells the board, “You can sleep well at night.”

Kroger needs that right now… especially when the numbers reveal that consumers are cutting back even on essentials, buying cheaper brands, and thinking twice before every purchase. At the same time, Walmart keeps rolling on price and efficiency, using the same operational muscle Foran helped build years ago.

Kroger’s job is not to reinvent grocery shopping. It’s to tighten the screws and smooth out operations… that’s all.

Investors seemed to agree. The stock popped roughly 6% after Kroger reaffirmed its 2025 forecast, a sign the market thinks the chaos phase might finally be over.

Ronald Sargent slides back into the chairman role, the board settles down, and Kroger gets another shot… this time with someone who’s already survived worse.

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News doesn’t hold positions in companies mentioned in the article.