So one of our moron courtesy clerks or cashiers -- no idea which -- put eggs into our gobacks. Now, as of yesterday evening, we had about 12 or so goback carts. Yep. That's not an exaggeration. Of course, if you work for Kroger and have been reading this forum for awhile, that won't surprise you. Most of them are the smaller carts (and yet, they wonder why we never have enough for the main entrance...). But they are still full of gobacks.
Anyway... I tried to go put them back to dairy. We have a small milk and egg display that is temperature-controlled near the front of the store. I first placed them there. Now this Kroger brand (color-coded) of eggs doesn't belong up front. And I saw another brand, different brand, that was already there. Tried three times to take them back to dairy. I am fast. Really fast. I could have done it in two minutes or less. But my Front End Supervisor said she wanted me to stay up front and bag for customers. I finally said the hell with it and put them there. She got mad at me for arguing with her. I mean, the hell do you want? Shrink or customer service? Those customers are going to buy eggs. Sooner or later. If they have to bag their own groceries for a minute-and-a-half, that's not going to kill them. It's not going to make their experience any less worse or better. What the hell ---- we are so low on courtesy clerks that at one point I was working three different registers back and forth and we STILL had at least two where customers were self-bagging.
So, long story short, FES told Super B-i-t-c-h that I have written about here in the past about my "behavior." This is the Super B-i-t-c-h whom I have mentioned that, when I was written up for insubordination about four months ago, told me, quote, "You can leave and we would be okay with that." Super B-i-t-c-h tells me "You don't listen."
I tell her "Well it's been drilled into me over and over again to take cold items, especially dairy and meat, back as soon as possible." Her response? "Nothing has been drilled into you."
My thought: B-u-l-l-s-h-i-t.
This is why I must either leave Front End or leave my store. I can't take this ridiculous double standard crap that comes with it. Everyone is so pressured by Que-Vision and so afraid of dips and so concerned over customer experience that they want one plus one to equal three. I feel like a goddamn octopus on some days. My FES knew I could take those eggs back quickly.
I have taken produce, cold, dairy, meat go backs back over and over and over again many times. Yet THIS time I get singled out and spoken to about my attempt to do so. It literally would have taken less than two minutes. Super-B-i-t-c-h: "That's two minutes that we have customers bagging their own groceries."
Oh, I might add that I had a cashier get mad at me too. After I was rebuked by FES and told to stay as a bagger, the cashier I was bagging for had grapes to goback. "Can you take this back?"
"Sorry, I can't."
"Well, when they spoil..."
"I completely agree with you, but I can't. I already tried to do gobacks with dairy and was told not to do it."
Does Kroger want "shrink" or do they want one minute of a customer self-bagging with a cashier? God damn I hate this company. I already have a right index finger that is painful to move at times due to smashing it in the carts in the parking lot god-knows-when. It's gotten to the point that, for all of my whining about how courtesy clerks are treated and how they are used as slave labor for the parking lot, that I WANT to go out on lot duty because it keeps me away from the stupid s-h-it at the registers!
I have been there seven months now. I don't know if it is going to become eight or nine. I don't want it to happen. I don't have any other income coming in right now and am still searching for other options. Soon as I have one, I'm not even sure anymore about putting my two weeks notice in. I have told several co-workers the only thing that keeps me from walking off the job due to the complete lack of common sense and frustration and stress is my high work ethic and personal ethics. But even they are being taxed.
It would have taken me two goddamn minutes to put those eggs back! If not sooner than that! Yet management would rather have these things spoil than have a customer have to (gasp) bag for themselves for that amount of time. Let me guess -- that's a combination of Que-Vision AND dips, right?
This is why I am glad that I still do not understand the math behind Que-Vision. It's like understanding taxidermy. I know the principles behind it, or at least the end result, but I don't want or need to know how it is done. Some things are better off with ignorance being an excuse.
I would but they get so slippery and really they aren't as enjoyable as a real human woman.
....
oh WAIT you meant something ELSE. Sorry about that. Yea. That's my take on it now, too.
I do get a chuckle out of looking back on it though. One of the persons whom was organizing gobacks on...Sunday, I guess it was? Maybe Saturday. Anyway, she was organizing the carts into aisles (per our regular hopeful routines...) and came over to a cashier for whom I was bagging at the time. She (the organizer) said she found a lot of food that had spoiled and that was the cause of the odor over by gobacks. I personally hadn't noticed any odors there. But, this is exactly what I was going through today. I have no doubts one of the spoiled foods was related to dairy and was probably eggs. If not eggs then milk. But definitely something dairy. those suckers smell AWFUL when they spoil.
What was my point again? Oh yea. That from now on, **** the eggs. And any other gobacks too. If they want some help they can ask for it. But of course five minutes in to me restocking the canned goods aisle from our gobacks I will hear "all courtesy clerks to the front."
Ok let me ask you a question. It should have an obvious answer, but this is Kroger after all so...
What happens to the dairy gobacks that sit there all day?
Please, PLEASE don't tell me that some idiotic bagger puts the rotten eggs that sat out all day back on the shelf. I mean, after all, if you had to scan them out as damaged...that would be shrink, which would be another Kroger no-no. D:
Ok let me ask you a question. It should have an obvious answer, but this is Kroger after all so...
What happens to the dairy gobacks that sit there all day?
Please, PLEASE don't tell me that some idiotic bagger puts the rotten eggs that sat out all day back on the shelf. I mean, after all, if you had to scan them out as damaged...that would be shrink, which would be another Kroger no-no. D:
If you can't find the time blame it on the supervisor who kept you there all day.She can blame it on quevision. Then quevision can blame it on elms and we can all be happy.
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Would you like fries with th... I mean, your milk in a bag?
Ok let me ask you a question. It should have an obvious answer, but this is Kroger after all so...
What happens to the dairy gobacks that sit there all day?
Please, PLEASE don't tell me that some idiotic bagger puts the rotten eggs that sat out all day back on the shelf. I mean, after all, if you had to scan them out as damaged...that would be shrink, which would be another Kroger no-no. D:
I don't know how long they had been there. Just that they were still cold enough to the touch that I could have put them back. I suppose the dairy gobacks either get noticed enough to get put back or, as pointed out, become shrink. Rotten eggs are clearly able to be smelt and (hopefully) all of our courtesy clerks -- I HATE the term 'bagger' -- have been trained or have enough common sense to feel for temperature before considering what to do.
But as you said this is Kroger so it's not an easy answer.
Shrink or customer service? Customer service, is the correct answer.
Really, you gotta let the go-backs go. You've been worrying about them for a long time, relatively speaking. Sure, there are twelve carts. But you're not going to be able to get them done yourself, and if supervisors or managers want you to stay up front instead, well, that's what you do. One day they'll change their mind and have you (or you and several others, hopefully) tackle all the carts of go-backs, and then you do that.
But you can't be taking it on yourself to be concerned about them. You worry too much, it stresses you out, it puts you into conflict with management. Just let them go.
Shrink or customer service? Customer service, is the correct answer.
Really, you gotta let the go-backs go. You've been worrying about them for a long time, relatively speaking. Sure, there are twelve carts. But you're not going to be able to get them done yourself, and if supervisors or managers want you to stay up front instead, well, that's what you do. One day they'll change their mind and have you (or you and several others, hopefully) tackle all the carts of go-backs, and then you do that.
But you can't be taking it on yourself to be concerned about them. You worry too much, it stresses you out, it puts you into conflict with management. Just let them go.
This.
Stop caring so much. You aren't paid enough to care as much as you do. You are a courtesy clerk. Simply do what is asked of you and don't go off "looking" for stuff to do on your own. If one day your supervisor or manager tells you to forget the eggs and stay up front and bag, then do that. If the next day, your supervisor or manager tells you to leave the front to put up the eggs, then do that. Don't argue. Don't look for confrontation. Just do as your told. If it happens to slow down enough and you find you actually have time on your hands, then you go and ask whoever is running the floor if he or she would like you to work on go-backs. Ask, don't just go off and do it on your own. Those that listen and are respectful and do what they're supposed to do get promoted and treated better. Those that want to argue and take it upon themselves to determine what takes priority rather than consulting first with the floor supervisor get nowhere and make life harder on themselves.
I don't know why you're still at that Kroger considering how much you hate it there. Try to get a transfer to another store. Better stores out there exist, I know, because for all the problems I have at mine, for the most part, the front end there consists of 98% cool people that are great to work with and management consists of three people that are easy to talk to and care and a fourth that is easy to talk to/cares too, but to a slightly lesser extent. Generally too, everyone that works drug/gm, produce, grocery and the service departments are all great too, so no matter where I'm working in the store or who I'm working with, it's typically easy to get along with whoever I'm with. Out of all the people that work at my store... I would say I could probably count on one hand the people that I prefer not to work with. So... with there being as many Kroger stores out there as there are, I would recommend you start looking into what its like at those other stores and get yourself out of that bad environment you're in.
The company has a thing C1T2 Customer First Task Second. Bag for your customers, if you have an informal rule to use the nearby coolers temporarily to prevent shrink, use them. Our store manager hates that so we're not supposed to do that so I guess he just wants more shrink because we're never going to have enough people to get stuff back to the shelves. Like today I had five carts to sort into the baskets. I had no one to send on go backs because they kept stealing them for other tasks because company was coming. Yes I get yelled at for having go backs. My thought was tough ****, at least they're out of the carts. Hell they hadn't even done the damaged cart from last night.
One of these days I'm going to say I've had enough of only hearing bad news, the phrase "I want this" or "no excuses" and never, ever a thank you. I always thank my team but that makes me an ass.
I care too damn much, I'll be honest. I work hard to try to set up my team for success and cover call outs, be smart about adding new cashier shifts, order & stock front end supplies, communicate changes or challenges. Pretty much no one gives a damn or notices what I do that's extra... well no it shouldn't be extra we should all be contentious but we're not.
When management throws a bitch fit just say that FES would NOT let you put them back. She said to bag instead. Or what you could have done in a pinch, put them in the "wrong" section of the cold box for the time being.
Wait... How long were the eggs sitting out. If they were out 30 min or more I usually put em
In compost.
Stop caring so much. You aren't paid enough to care as much as you do.
Sorry, I thought that in life one was supposed to be proud of one's job and do the best work possible. Forgot who I was working for. I'm not going to question your own, but I have a high work ethic that basically is what is responsible for the stress and seeing other parts of my job. I'm working on not giving a crap. I could start with this forum, but I wouldn't want to do that. That's just silly. Instead I'll ignore gobacks and let them look like crap in the store. Yesterday I caught one of my fellow courtesy clerks hiding behind the carts rather than getting them from the parking lot. I haven't done that. Yet. However, I do know all of the blind spots for our cameras...
Stop caring so much. You aren't paid enough to care as much as you do.
Sorry, I thought that in life one was supposed to be proud of one's job and do the best work possible. Forgot who I was working for. I'm not going to question your own, but I have a high work ethic that basically is what is responsible for the stress and seeing other parts of my job. I'm working on not giving a crap. I could start with this forum, but I wouldn't want to do that. That's just silly. Instead I'll ignore gobacks and let them look like crap in the store. Yesterday I caught one of my fellow courtesy clerks hiding behind the carts rather than getting them from the parking lot. I haven't done that. Yet. However, I do know all of the blind spots for our cameras...
What good does it do you to become stressed out over carts, go-backs and so on? There's nothing you can do about it. Corporate doesn't care, otherwise corporate would allow for sufficient hours in the budget to ensure every register had a bagger the majority of the time, that there would be enough courtesy clerks so that two could be on the lot during peak times without leaving the front end short of package help and that go-backs would never pile up. Corporate is all about maximizing profit while minimizing expenses, so if corporate deliberately understaffs its stores, you somehow see that as being your problem to fix? Good luck with that because you'll never be able to do enough as the problems that exist within Kroger stores can only be fixed by a change in leadership within the highest levels of the company.
You can still care about your job and take pride in your work, but don't think you have to take all the work onto your shoulders alone. If you ever want to be more than a courtesy clerk at Kroger, then you need to stop arguing with your superiors and acting like you know what's best. Do what's asked of you and do it well. Focus on your customers. When it's slow, ask your supervisor if you can do go backs, clean registers, whatever, and that shows you like to stay busy while at the same time respecting the chain of command. If you ever do work your way up to floor supervisor, you're going to find out for yourself that no matter how much you care, it will ultimately make no difference because you will find you will have relatively little power to fix what's wrong on the front because Que Vision, Key Retailing, e-schedule, pressure from management which in turn is being pressured by corporate and other things will all get in the way of running a smooth, efficient front end.
Stop caring so much. You aren't paid enough to care as much as you do.
Sorry, I thought that in life one was supposed to be proud of one's job and do the best work possible. Forgot who I was working for. I'm not going to question your own, but I have a high work ethic that basically is what is responsible for the stress and seeing other parts of my job. I'm working on not giving a crap. I could start with this forum, but I wouldn't want to do that. That's just silly. Instead I'll ignore gobacks and let them look like crap in the store. Yesterday I caught one of my fellow courtesy clerks hiding behind the carts rather than getting them from the parking lot. I haven't done that. Yet. However, I do know all of the blind spots for our cameras...
One is supposed to have pride in one's job, and do the best work possible, yes. I have a high work ethic too. The trick is to be doing something at all times - not to be doing everything at all times, because you can't do that, nobody can.
You say it yourself; it's causing you stress at work. Just realize that you can't do everything, and stop expecting to be able to (as in allowed to) do everything. You are very obviously not the only one ignoring go-backs. At your store then, for the most part, other tasks are your priority, and I would guess that (as at my store) go-backs are (generally) a low-priority task, something to be done in down-time. So focus on the higher priorities, because that's what management wants, needs, and expects of you currently. Wait until management gets tired of the go-backs and organizes a go-back expedition, and then volunteer.
On the other hand, don't emulate the slackers. You'd be miserable doing less than you are able, just as trying to do more than you are able makes you miserable.
Kroger can get over shrink any time of day. What Kroger needs and is after are warm bodies who will spend money.
And as you know, customers leave for the most idiotic of reasons. I mean, they leave because they have to stoop themselves to the levels of savages by having to bag their own groceries. Yes, I've had a few customers who threatened to leave their entire basket at my lane and walk out if I didn't call over the bagger at the next register even though he/she is busy with a big order.
Not to sound like some management drone, but there are times when you've gotta hold your tongue and just do what they tell you to do. If they pin the eggs on you later, tell them that you were asked/ordered to stay at the front and bag.
A case of cheap Kroger eggs isn't going to hurt a store's bottom line. And would you really allow a case of eggs to result in a write-up?
You can "care" about what you do but you cant care about everything for what you are being paid. Do what you can for your shift and when it ends leave. You arent management and making the big bucks so concern yourself with what you can do with your time. As others have said the stress is NOT worth it!
