There’s no point in pretending there’s not an 800-pound gorilla in the room. So, let’s just get the obvious fact out of the way first — now that Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has jumped into the grocery game via its acquisition of Whole Foods, rival Kroger Co (NYSE:KR) has a problem.

That much is understood by almost everyone, and it is a core part of the reason KR stock is down more than 40% year-to-date.

However, what if investors still haven’t fully priced in the potential adverse impact of Amazon’s entry into the grocery race, and the ensuing response to Amazon’s foray from other grocery names like Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) and Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST)?

That may well be the case, judging from a couple of decisions the country’s biggest grocery chain has made of late.

Strange Days Indeed for KR

There are two ways to interpret news from (and about) a company. One way is the superficial way, digesting the content of the news itself, and judging the impact that news may have on future revenue and earnings.

The other way is more contextual and involves asking why a company may be doing something rather than just focusing on what it’s doing. It’s this second mindset current and would-be owners of KR stock may want to embrace in light of two decisions Kroger has made within the past month.

First though not foremost, Kroger is getting into the restaurant business. It unveiled what it’s calling Kitchen 1883 last month.

There are some obvious tie-ins. Kroger sells food, so it can readily source food and drinks served in the restaurants. And, clearly consumers eat at restaurants, spending nearly $800 billion dining out every year in the U.S. alone. Kroger’s just trying to carve out a piece of that pie for itself.

It’s an odd move all the same, however. Kroger isn’t in the restaurant business and doesn’t have a proven acumen for making this a viable venture. Perhaps it can learn more or purchase that experience and talent, as it will certainly have to for Kitchen 1883 to become a worthwhile profit center. The trick to successful restaurants is creating large scale through multiple units. This is just way out of Kroger’s wheelhouse though, tantamount to throwing spaghetti on the wall just to see if it sticks.

The second — and far more telling — red flag is Kroger’s announced decision following the release of its second-quarter numbers last month. Going forward, it won’t provide long-term profit guidance, limiting its outlook to just one year.

To be fair, plenty of companies don’t offer long-term guidance, and investors are still more than content with the limited outlook they do get. It’s a transparency owners of KR stock had grown accustomed to, though. Without it, it becomes more difficult to justify holding onto the stock.

As for the why, the most plausible answers are clear: Either the grocer doesn’t really know what the future holds or it doesn’t want to say in fear of how investors might react.

Either way, it’s another major investor-relations paradigm shift that implies Kroger is nervous. Never mind that when restaurants fail, as they often do, they usually burn up a lot of money in the process.

There’s also a third, albeit minor, initiative that underscores the growing desperation Kroger seems to think it will be facing soon, although it had already started this initiative well before Amazon staked its claim on the grocery landscape. That is, it’s effort to source locally produced foods has become an official initiative called We Are Local, which attempts to cultivate a home-grown, community-oriented feel to its in-store selection.

It’s a creative marketing approach to be sure, appealing to a local crowd to make a customer connection that would otherwise not be made from a distant corporate office. It’s just still not enough to offset the looming impact of Amazon and the stepped-up competition from Wal-Mart and other grocers.

Looking Ahead for KR Stock

Don’t misread the message. Not all change has to be bad. Indeed, sometimes change just for the sake of change even without a backdrop of new competition is a good thing, simply because it fends off would-be competitors.

But these aren’t the kinds of changes Kroger is making. The changes the country’s biggest grocery store chain are making are defensive and smack of concern about the future.

If you own or are thinking about scooping up KR stock while it’s in the bargain bin, you may want to take the company’s subtle hints that it knows a brisk headwind is coming.

As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. You can follow him on Twitter.