I am asking this question as a cashier because it seems that the Kroger location I work at I work for wants highly satisfied customers, yet the training the front-end employees at the location I work for, which management above store management came up with, is not getting the results they want.
The front-end employees who received the training are the cashiers and the courtesy clerks/baggers.
Back in May on a busy Sunday my employer received complaints about the long lines, long wait, and slow cashiers. I had to work the following Monday, and I noticed that the front-end supervisor was walking back and forth at the front-end. I asked her why she was doing that, and she told me that our employer wants to keep the lines as short as possible due to complaints from customers regarding that as well as slow cashiers, and that she is supposed to make sure that happens. Then I had a customer who had several coupons. The front-end supervisor had me stop scanning the customers groceries. She called for the drug dept./general merchandise manager to check out the customers groceries as well as scan their coupons. She asked me to bag their groceries instead. I asked her what was going on, and she told me that my employer received complaints from other customers regarding customers using too many coupons.
So this particular front-end supervisor was given the task of training the cashiers and courtesy clerks/baggers on how to be 1) efficient, 2) productive, and 3) faster. The cashiers were given certain steps to follow as well as the courtesy clerks/baggers. The cashiers were told that we had a goal of 30 items per minute to reach, according to the Front-end Coordinator who came up with this training. The Front-end Coordinator is over an area of locations, including the location I work at.
The Front-end Coordinator also wants every cashier to have an overall score of 95% regarding their productivity. She also wants every location to have an overall score of 95%. Of course several factors determine both scores, many of which no-one has any control over.
There was one time the location I work at received a score of 95%. Lately is in the low 90s, but management above store management is still not happy.
Then there are the customers who complain about the check out process being too fast. Either the cashiers are scanning too quickly, the courtesy clerks/baggers ask them for their cart too soon so they can load their cart with their groceries, or the payment process is too fast. It seems that these customers feel rushed.
Even though the Front-end Coordinator addressed the problems earlier this year.
I mean, there really isn't much more to say than that. Corporate has unrealistic expectations. A majority of cashiers and baggers aren't going to care one bit about any of this. They get paid by the hour... and not much, at that. Maybe if Kroger paid as well as Costco, a company where, yes, you get paid very well, but you're also held to a higher standard. If you can't meet that standard, then you're gone... and there's ten or more potential new hires waiting to take your spot. Maybe if Kroger gave its employees decent, steady hours and rewarded them for doing well and meeting expectations, then yeah, employees might care more.
Customers behave in ways that are going to make corporate's expectations impossible to me. A customer with a binder of coupons that also buys multiple sets of Mega Event items isn't going to give a damn about your ring tender or the customer(s) behind him/her. He or she is gonna wanna make sure that every Mega Event/sale price comes off when you total the order. An elderly customer that comes to the store partly to "socialize" because that person rarely gets out or has nobody at home isn't going to want to be rushed out the door... he or she genuinely wants to have a conversation. A mom with two or more young kids is going to have a hard time focusing on you when trying to keep her kids under control. There are literally dozens of scenarios that can and do play out every day that contribute to less than stellar ring tender and long lines... and yes, part of it has to do with Kroger being cheap and not scheduling enough help or investing in the people that they schedule so that those people feel valued/want to succeed with the company.
Your front end coordinator is never going to get what she wants and neither is corporate... and guess what, corporate doesn't care. As long as the money keeps coming in, then this is all nothing but "show". The front end coordinator does all this for "show" to make it look like she's doing something and earning her pay. None of these people actually care... because if they actually cared in the first place, Kroger wouldn't be in the shape that it is now.
So... yeah, don't stress about it. Don't worry about. Nothing is going to happen because nobody in a position of power to make something happen cares enough to do anything other than put up a pretense that they care. This will all blow over eventually and nothing will change... and then sometime down the road, it will get brought up again and once more, after awhile, it won't get talked about again. It's a cycle that repeats itself over and over. That's all it is.
I mean, there really isn't much more to say than that. Corporate has unrealistic expectations. A majority of cashiers and baggers aren't going to care one bit about any of this. They get paid by the hour... and not much, at that. Maybe if Kroger paid as well as Costco, a company where, yes, you get paid very well, but you're also held to a higher standard. If you can't meet that standard, then you're gone... and there's ten or more potential new hires waiting to take your spot. Maybe if Kroger gave its employees decent, steady hours and rewarded them for doing well and meeting expectations, then yeah, employees might care more.
Customers behave in ways that are going to make corporate's expectations impossible to me. A customer with a binder of coupons that also buys multiple sets of Mega Event items isn't going to give a damn about your ring tender or the customer(s) behind him/her. He or she is gonna wanna make sure that every Mega Event/sale price comes off when you total the order. An elderly customer that comes to the store partly to "socialize" because that person rarely gets out or has nobody at home isn't going to want to be rushed out the door... he or she genuinely wants to have a conversation. A mom with two or more young kids is going to have a hard time focusing on you when trying to keep her kids under control. There are literally dozens of scenarios that can and do play out every day that contribute to less than stellar ring tender and long lines... and yes, part of it has to do with Kroger being cheap and not scheduling enough help or investing in the people that they schedule so that those people feel valued/want to succeed with the company.
Your front end coordinator is never going to get what she wants and neither is corporate... and guess what, corporate doesn't care. As long as the money keeps coming in, then this is all nothing but "show". The front end coordinator does all this for "show" to make it look like she's doing something and earning her pay. None of these people actually care... because if they actually cared in the first place, Kroger wouldn't be in the shape that it is now.
So... yeah, don't stress about it. Don't worry about. Nothing is going to happen because nobody in a position of power to make something happen cares enough to do anything other than put up a pretense that they care. This will all blow over eventually and nothing will change... and then sometime down the road, it will get brought up again and once more, after awhile, it won't get talked about again. It's a cycle that repeats itself over and over. That's all it is.
Amen! Unless a HIGH level GO-VP gets involved nothing is going to change. Anyone lower will just tell you to use "Best Practices", but the question would be.....how did "Best Practices" become set completely by GO and not have realistic input from store associates? I have talked to a variety of different levels of OUR company and each person does not believe (Eye opening way), what store associates are going though.
" I have talked to a variety of different levels of OUR company and each person does not believe (Eye opening way), what store associates are going though."
Hi,
Can you rephrase that a little, as I'm not sure what you meant exactly?
Do you mean
"I have talked to several people in different levels of the company and they flat-out don't believe what I am telling them"
or "they are shocked when I tell them all the problems employees have in trying to accomodate the standards/best practices, and try to act like they were oblivious"
or "they have never heard this kind of thing before, and just now their eyes are beginning to open"
or "they didn't know about it before, and they still don't believe I am serious when I tell them"
is your store unionized? if so, don't stress about it. just do your best. it's not like they can fire you if your at 90%.. we have several people in the 60s% and they have had jobs for years.
I've come to the conclusion that Kroger wants Amazon warehouse spend while doing customer interaction in the meantime. I don't give a crap about my timings as clicklister anymore. Why? Because I'm trying to do two jobs at once: selecting an item and helping endless customers who think I know every detail of the store. If someone wants to fire me for doing the job they keep adding on to, then feel free. I pay the union for a reason. They want us to have the same scan times as a cashier. Again, like Amazon. And Amazon's practices aren't exactly above reproach as that article a few years ago pointed out.
