Platform Guide & Glossary

Everything you need to understand the FreshSource Intel dashboard — what each term means, how the data is collected, and how to use the signals to make better buying and pricing decisions.

Data columns explained
Week of
The Monday start date of the weekly ad cycle being tracked. Kroger and most retailers run their promotions Wednesday–Tuesday; we date everything to the Monday of that week for consistency.
Example: "2026-04-08" means the week starting April 8, 2026.
Retailer
The banner name of the store — not the parent company. Kroger, Ralphs, Fred Meyer, and Harris Teeter are all owned by The Kroger Co. but run separate weekly ads with different prices in different regions.
Example: Ralphs (Southern California) and Fred Meyer (Pacific Northwest) are different banners with different strawberry prices even though both are owned by Kroger.
Item
The product description exactly as it appears in the retailer's system or weekly ad. Kroger API data uses the full product name including brand; PDF-extracted data uses the ad's wording.
Example: "Fresh Strawberries – 1 LB Clamshell" or "Driscoll's Strawberries 16 oz"
Price
The current retail selling price. For items on sale this is the promotional price. For items at regular price this is the everyday shelf price. Multi-buy deals are shown as written (e.g. "2/$5") and mean the per-item price when buying the required quantity.
Example: "$2.99" = $2.99 each. "2/$5" = $2.50 each when you buy two. "4/$5" = $1.25 each when you buy four.
Unit
The size or quantity the price applies to. Critical for apples-to-apples comparisons — a $3.99 price means very different things for a 1 lb clamshell vs a 2 lb bag.
Example: "1 lb", "2 lb bag", "each", "5 lb bag", "6 oz", "3 ct"
Deal type
How the price was obtained — this tells you whether you're looking at a promotional price or the everyday price.

On sale — Active weekly ad promotion. Price is lower than regular.

Member price — Albertsons/Vons/Safeway loyalty card price. Requires the free app or card. Available to any shopper who signs up.

BOGO — Buy one get one free or at a discount. The price shown is for one item.

Regular price — Everyday shelf price, no promotion active.
Category
The produce category we've assigned to each item for filtering and trend analysis. Categories are standardized across all retailers so you can compare apples to apples regardless of how each retailer names their products.
Categories: Berries · Citrus · Apples / Pears · Grapes · Melons · Tropicals / Stone fruit · Tomatoes · Peppers · Lettuce · Leafy greens · Packaged greens / Salads · Carrots · Onions / Alliums · Potatoes / Root veg · Mushrooms · Herbs · Prepared / trays
Region
The geographic market where this price was observed. The same banner often runs different prices and different promotions in different regions — especially Kroger, which operates in 35 states under 21 different banner names.
Example: Kroger strawberries may be $2.99/lb in the Midwest but $3.49/lb in the Southeast in the same week.
Zip code
The zip code of the specific store location used to pull this data from the retailer's system. Kroger's API returns store-specific pricing — if you want to verify a price by visiting the retailer's website or app, enter this zip code to see the same store's prices.
Example: Enter "90001" on ralphs.com to see the same Los Angeles store prices shown in this dashboard.
Product link
A direct link to the product on the retailer's website. For Kroger-family retailers this goes directly to the product page. For other retailers it opens a search result for that item. Clicking "View ↗" opens the retailer's site in a new tab so you can verify the price, see the full product description, and check availability.
Source file
How this data was collected. "kroger_api" means it came directly from Kroger's official developer API — automated, verified, and accurate to the store level. A PDF filename means it was extracted from the retailer's printed weekly ad — manually reviewed and entered.
"kroger_api" = automated · "Ralphs_weeklyad.pdf" = manually extracted from print ad
Understanding the signals sidebar

The signals sidebar automatically scans this week's data and surfaces patterns worth paying attention to. These are not curated manually — they are generated fresh each time the dashboard loads based on the actual numbers.

High retailer saturation
A produce category where 4 or more retailers are running promotions simultaneously. This usually signals a supply surplus — the commodity is in strong supply and retailers are competing aggressively on price. For FreshSource clients it's a signal to move volume now rather than waiting.
Example signal
Berries on promotion at 8 retailers this week. Strawberries and blueberries both showing simultaneous promotions — supply is strong nationally.
Price spread alert
When the same item shows a price difference of more than $1.50 between retailers in the same week. This is intelligence your clients can act on — either to position their pricing or to understand what competitors are doing. The retailer with the lowest price is likely running a loss leader or has a supply advantage.
Example signal
Strawberries: $2.99 at Fry's vs $6.99 at Sprouts — $4.00 gap. Fry's is running an aggressive loss leader; Sprouts is at everyday organic pricing.
No promotions found
A produce category where no retailer is running a promotion this week. This can be an opportunity — if your client supplies that category, this is a week to pitch a promotional program to retailers, since there's no competitive noise to work against.
Example signal
Asparagus not on ad at any retailer this week — no competitive promotions active. Potential opening for a targeted pitch to produce buyers.
How the data is collected
Kroger API (automated)
Ralphs, Kroger, Harris Teeter, Fred Meyer, King Soopers, Fry's Food, Smith's, QFC, City Market, Dillons, Baker's, Gerbes, Jay C, Owen's, Pay Less, Ruler Foods, Pick 'n Save, Metro Market, Mariano's, Food 4 Less, and Foods Co. are pulled automatically every Tuesday via Kroger's official public developer API. This covers 21 banners and 180+ regional store locations across 35 states.
Manual PDF extraction
Albertsons, Vons, Pavilions, Safeway, Sprouts, Stater Bros, HEB, Smart & Final, and others are collected by downloading their weekly ad PDFs each Tuesday and extracting produce items and prices. This data is reviewed before being added to the dataset.
Update cadence
Data is refreshed every Tuesday to align with the industry-standard Wednesday–Tuesday weekly ad cycle. The "Week of" date shown is always the Monday of the active ad week. Historical weeks are preserved — you can filter back through all previous weeks at any time.
Frequently asked questions
Why does the same item show different prices at different store locations of the same retailer?
Retailers like Kroger set prices at the regional store level, not nationally. A Kroger in Dallas and a Kroger in Cincinnati can run completely different weekly ad promotions — different items, different prices, different deals. The same is true for Fred Meyer in Oregon vs. Seattle. This regional price variation is one of the most valuable things FreshSource Intel tracks.
What does "on sale" vs "member price" actually mean in practice?
"On sale" means the price is a time-limited weekly promotion — it will revert to a higher regular price next week. "Member price" (used by Albertsons, Vons, Safeway, Pavilions) is the price available to anyone with a free loyalty card or app account. Member prices can be ongoing (not truly temporary) or weekly — the data reflects what price was available at the time of collection.
Why are some prices shown as "2/$5" instead of a single price?
Some retailers structure deals as multi-buy offers — you get the promotional price only when you buy the required quantity. "2/$5" means $2.50 each when you buy two (you'd pay $2.99 for just one). "4/$5" means $1.25 each when you buy four. We show these exactly as advertised so you can see the deal structure the retailer is using.
How accurate is this data?
Kroger API data is pulled directly from Kroger's systems and is accurate to the individual store. Manual PDF data is extracted from the official weekly ads and reviewed before being uploaded. Prices reflect what was available at the time of collection each Tuesday — individual store pricing can occasionally vary from the published ad due to local inventory or system differences.
What does the zip code column tell me?
For Kroger API data, the zip code is the actual store location used to pull the pricing. If you want to verify a price, go to that retailer's website, enter this zip code when prompted for your store or location, and you'll see the same store's current pricing. This is especially useful when a price looks unusually high or low and you want to double-check it.
Can I see how prices have changed week over week?
Yes — use the "Week" filter dropdown in the main dashboard. Select an earlier week to see that week's data, then switch to the current week to compare. Future versions of the dashboard will include an explicit week-over-week comparison view and trend charts.
Which retailers are not yet covered?
We currently do not have automated coverage for Walmart, Target, Costco, Whole Foods (Amazon), Aldi, Lidl, or regional chains outside the Kroger and Albertsons families. These are on the roadmap. Walmart and Instacart API access are the next likely additions.