Kroger’s hiring of former Walmart US leader Greg Foran as CEO on February 9, 2026, signals a sharper competition with Walmart in the US grocery market.
Foran’s knowledge of Walmart’s operations positions Kroger to challenge on price, store experience, private labels, and omnichannel fulfillment.
Phil Lempert of The Robin Report notes this move could shift the competitive landscape, with Kroger leveraging its stores as digital fulfillment hubs and intensifying the battle between the two grocery giants. Lempert writes:
In the annals of competitive intelligence, few appointments in the history of American retail have been as strategically loaded as the one Kroger’s board made on February 9, 2026. That morning, the company announced that Greg Foran — the New Zealander who spent six years inside the Walmart machine, turned around its U.S. store operations, generated 20 consecutive quarters of comparable sales growth, and helped build the very digital and operational juggernaut that has tormented Kroger for years — is now Kroger’s CEO. […]
Greg Foran is not a visionary; he is all about operations and focuses on the store experience and empowering employees. That’s what he did at Walmart U.S., where he focused relentlessly on store standards, in‑stocks, and associate engagement to stabilize traffic and improve the shopper experience. […]
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