Kroger, has quietly rolled out its personal finance product line at nearly 2,500 stores, offering home equity loans, mortgages, credit cards, identity theft protection and pet insurance. The financial products are being advertised through brochures at the checkout line, an area considered prime real estate in a grocery store because it's a shopper's ultimate destination.

"Few retailers in the United States are offering financial services," says Sandy Skrovan, a retail marketing consultant with TNS Retail Forward, "but I think we're probably going to see more of it. What retailers tend to do is they look for industries that are still highly fragmented that they can go after. [They] try to gain more revenue that way through segments such as fuel, pharmacies, health-care services and financial services."

Wal-Mart Stores may be the best-known retailer to employ that strategy. The world's largest retailer runs a booming check cashing and money transfer business, and plans to expand its in-store medical clinics. It also attempted to start a bank, but withdrew its application in March following a firestorm of controversy over whether companies outside the financial services sector should be allowed to own banks.

"For Kroger, developing its financial services outreach is likely to be one of trial and error as it figures out what works best," commented George Morvis, CEO of Financial Shares Corp., a bank consulting firm.

"The initiative from Kroger is aimed at making Kroger's supermarkets a place where consumers can find something else," said Kroger spokeswoman Meghan Glynn. "This is just another opportunity to offer choices ... for the customer when they're inside the stores," she said.

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