Kroger To Lay off Hundreds of Workers (kiosk, discounts, stores)

[Scooby Snacks]

The grocery chain is losing a lot of money from online retailers and other brick and mortar grocery stores. Its solution? Cutting staff A spokeswoman for Kroger told CNBC in a statement that “As part of ongoing talent management, many store operating divisions are evaluating middle management roles and team structures with an eye toward keeping resources close to the customer.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/02/krog...ound-plan.html

Here in Houston, Kroger is losing a lot of business to HEB because it is not viewed as a customer oriented grocery store. The grocer is forever trying to get the customer to check themselves out with not enough cashiers and too many self checkouts or alternatively, the stupid scan, bag, and go system in which the customer takes the scanner at the front door, scans all their items, and uses their own bags. This system requires another app. And Kroger's coupons only apply if the customer buys 5 or 10 of a group of items in most cases. Customers must use a Kroger card to get any discounts.

[GearHeadDave]

Exactly. "Keeping resources close to the customer" is Kroger double-speak for forcing you to use a self checkout kiosk. Which ALWAYS takes longer than going through a skilled checkout agent.

[Steve Bagu]

I go back decades as a former member of the Grocery Retail Clerks....checker, stocker and receiving clerk.
My own opinion is that the Retail Clerks Union made their own downfall with excessive demands over the yrs,
I recall one time my store Mgr asking me..."Who pays your wages?, the Union or the Grocery store your working in".
Clerks had it pretty good back then.
Now days a non speaking English person may be doing the shelf stocking as I have seen here in So Calif.

[msgsing]

Kroger operates here under the name Ralph’s. The traditional cashiers have almost disappeared giving way to self check out. We interacted for years with cashiers in our neighborhood store but they’re all gone. Just another indication of technology eliminating people.

[Rabrrita]

Reality is Kroger is looking deeply at all the previous accomplishments and previous failures including those of today. It's that hard look that is the cause of this action. Kroger was always mid management heavy at the store level. The belief was that Managers had a much more flexible opportunity to interact with consumers on a daily basis. Not being tied down to a desk or stuck behind a counter enables them to mingle and improve the customer's positive experience. It was an expensive failure.

Managers being managers often clashed with workers over duties. How many times have we seen managers running around or on the intercom calling for cashier assistance instead of opening the lane themselves and doing the job? Did they really need managers for dry goods, packaged goods, even aisles, odd aisles, end caps, cold goods, frozen goods, front area, parking lot, lighting, sales items, etc etc etc. Even today there are almost a half dozen managers walking around or congregating together trying to figure out ways to improve things but not actually doing things themselves that would benefit the consumer. And when they do, they make it sound like that poor cashier with 30 people on line was at fault.

So, Kroger appears to have come to grips with their bloated mid level manager crisis and hopefully, the money saved will enable them to return cashiers to the lanes. At our local Kroger, (one that underwent recent changes) there are double the available lanes open with a manager now routinely opening a lane and doing cashier duties. That means even if only 2 people are on line, if they both have full carts, the manager is now opening another lane to speed things up. I even saw a manager stocking the shelves of a sale item that had run low. No longer are they calling for some clerk to fetch the ketchup from the back, no, they are fetching and stocking it themselves when it's necessary. I'm not dumb enough to think they are doing it for me; I know they are doing it to keep their job, but it's been a nice change. That's been my experience in the last two months and hopefully that's the direction they take otherwise they are going to be joining Sears.

[Steve Bagu]

I recall when Ralph's was a family operation before selling out.
Alpha Beta connected to the Mormons (No alcohol sold) Liquor store was a premium next door.
Store Mgr was at a front counter to answer questions or okay checks.
I was with a Inventory Service and saw it all.

[motormaker]

Stater Bros in So CA has stedfastedly refused to install self checkout machines.

[Harpaint]

Kroger here is Fred Meyer. I have my groceries from there delivered through Instacart. They bring them right into the kitchen. They even brought big bags of planters mix and fertilzer last spring, and took it to the backyard! I hope they stay in business.

[PriscillaVanilla]

Originally Posted by Scooby Snacks

Here in Houston, Kroger is losing a lot of business to HEB because it is not viewed as a customer oriented grocery store. The grocer is forever trying to get the customer to check themselves out with not enough cashiers and too many self checkouts or alternatively, the stupid scan, bag, and go system in which the customer takes the scanner at the front door, scans all their items, and uses their own bags. .

I was under the impression that Kroger cashiers hate their jobs.

[ddeemo]

Kroger in San Diego is Ralphs and in Las Vegas is Smiths - my Ralphs card works fine at Smiths but they do have slight differences. I don't mind self checkout.