I live in Louisville Kentucky and Kroger owns the town. No other comparable grocery stores are allowed as competitors. Kroger's meats and produce are over priced and inferior. Look at their 80% hamburger...it's the same light pink color that the 70% used to be. And their sales are a joke. Putting jello, pudding and soda on sale are not life sustaining purchases. They've eliminated the senior discount, mark items up to put them on sale, have "fake" sales ((buy 10 items, get $5 off) etc. If there was ANYPLACE in this town with packaged foods, meats and produce...I'd be there and be loyal.
I live in Louisville Kentucky and Kroger owns the town. No other comparable grocery stores are allowed as competitors. Kroger's meats and produce are over priced and inferior. Look at their 80% hamburger...it's the same light pink color that the 70% used to be. And their sales are a joke. Putting jello, pudding and soda on sale are not life sustaining purchases. They've eliminated the senior discount, mark items up to put them on sale, have "fake" sales ((buy 10 items, get $5 off) etc. If there was ANYPLACE in this town with packaged foods, meats and produce...I'd be there and be loyal.
From conversations/meetings I've had with managers in the past Kroger sees the Cincinnati-Louisville area as their territory and get really protective over it. I remember when Aldi's and Lidl's were making plans to move to the U.S. management at my store made a huge doomsday-like deal about it. It's like taking your dog for a walk and it has to stop and piss on every tree.
I'm finding it hard to believe that a city as large as Louisville has no other grocery stores than Kroger.
My town has 15,000 people and we have several grocery stores to choose from...
Several Walmarts, couple pic-pacs (at least there used to be), a trader joe on shelbyville, 3 Aldi's and 3 Meijer's apparently according to google, and several miscellaneous storefronts. At least 17 Kroger's in Louisville not counting those in surrounding counties.
I'm finding it hard to believe that a city as large as Louisville has no other grocery stores than Kroger.
My town has 15,000 people and we have several grocery stores to choose from...
Kroger has been in the area for a long, long time and parents used to shop at Kroger when they were kids. Kroger is a premium grocery store in the area. And theres a Kroger on every corner it seems. Kroger stores within 2 miles of each other. So if a customer doesn't like one Kroger they just go to the one around the corner. And some Kroger stores are very nice compared to wal mart and Meijer.
Your title would be better labeled as "Kroger is a Monopoly", but in reality Kroger is just the company with the largest market presence. I remember growing up and going to a store names "Thriftway", which was also a Cincinnati based small chain. While it might have had 15 stores at its height, it had a large market presence but like all groceries chains was unable to keep up with the market. If you look at the news you will see smaller chains closing monthly, this only happens when customers stop shopping with a particular chain. Kroger is happy to compete against any chain, but competition is what also caused stores to become insolvent, as they are lowering prices or not passing on price increases. Its funny how people think companies pay the same cost on items year over year, I challenge everyone to think of every item in the store as gas for your car........ prices are always changing because of market factors.
I'm sure there is another store your able to shop at, its just their prices and variety isn't what your expecting. I can count at least 6 other grocery chains in my area, not counting convenience stores or drug stores chains. As we do not live in a communist state, everyone has a choice where they shop and what they buy.
To All - Yes, there are Meijers, but only 2 and both over an hour away from me. Walmart's meats are too expensive and oftentimes their produce is too. No pic-paks. Yup, we've got Aldi but they don't have any selection really. And there's Dollar stores, but like Aldi, you can't get everything for a family there. I hate greedy Kroger and thank goodness I don't work there!