Send a message by taking your money to a neighboring competitor. If enough dissatisfied customers do this, it will force positive change to happen. Before you do though, you should get a receipt from that Kroger store that has a survey invitation on it and specifically mention in the survey that you will be shopping elsewhere because of this problem, so they know that they lost a customer. If sales drop in the meat department, they will take notice.

If you have an Albertsons in your area, check out the meat department there. I think Albertsons has fresher, better quality meat and it's worth paying a little extra for. Sometimes too, around holidays, Albertsons has better sales in the meat department than Kroger. Albertsons has a butcher shop just like Kroger too, and the stuff in the service case at Albertsons typically looks fresher. Yeah, you're sometimes going to pay more, but the quality is better IMO.