This happened to me a few years ago. I was at work and an elderly man was having trouble getting an electric cart to go. The people who were working customer care at the time couldn't figure out what was wrong. So they ask me to come take a look. I find out that it wasn't unplugged. But before I could get a word out the old guy started to complain. So instead of calming the situation down and offering an explanation, they get the regular wheelchair out and volunteer me to push him around. As we were traversing the store getting the stuff he needed he would constantly go on and on about how worthless the place was. "This is cheaper somewhere else! I can get more for less at this other place!", was all I heard. I was about ready to shove him out of the door, wheelchair and all, and tell him to go get it. But he decided to head to the checkout a few of the items he needed. He starts to scream for management and a co-manager helps him out and gets complained at too. When the co-manager comes back in she tells me and a couple other of the baggers to come upstairs. We are lectured about how we could do things better and that the guy won't be coming back so we lost his buisness as a result. As far as I was concerned that was a blessing in disguise. I've heard some of the customers complain before but I can only sum up this guy in one word: YEESH!
We have an old guy come in---retired school teacher with a Masters degree, so presumably he's smart. He has a fixation with Special Kitty turkey and gibblets canned cat food. And I am here to assure you, what ever we have available on the shelf is what he will take. The shelf count is 94 cans; he'll wipe the whole display clean, and to HELL with other customers.
We've been dealing with him for years. What's funny is we have another old person, a woman who is a C.N.A. at a local hospital....and she has the same Special Kitty addiction! The two finally met up in the cat food aisle one day, and nearly got into a fist fight over this crap. We're like 'DAM------REALLY???'
And yes, when the issue isn't over cat food, these two are whining and crying and squealing like weiners on a bar-b-que over the prices of everything else....WOW~
------Another fun thing to deal with are the customers who will look at a display of boxed strawberries that have been reduced from $1.98 to $1.00. They're like "SOOOOO.......What's wrong with 'em? They're SPOILED and y'all'd rather poison us than dump 'em and lose a few cents, right?"
These are often the same folks who will bich about having to pay a few cents more for a can of tuna....Go figure~
i'm not one who'se been blessed with alot of patience. sometimes i get customers who want a 1/2 pound of ham or turkey. so i reach into the case and pull out a butt of meat to slice up for them. they see the end and say "ohh mmyy, you're not gonna give me the end piece now are you??!!" I'm think to myself "you're damn right i am". then if i do go get a new one out of the walk-in i would say, "regardless of if i cut it off this one or that one you will still be getting the end. its still 100% turkey even if it comes from the middle or the end." it cracks me up! then some people want their stuff cut real thin. i i crank up the good ol' slicer and turn the dial to as low as it will go and shave off a paper thin piece to show. they grab hold of the deli paper with the transparent piece of meat on it and inspect it of a minute or two as if they were buying a damn cadilac car! WTF! its deli meat! who the hell cares if its sliced dead on thin or a littlle bit thick thin LOL. Then the worst are the people who order that Hot Souse and Head Cheese. Kahn's Delux bologna is bad enough but to order up some Xtra Hot Souse - whoa....
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I am no longer part of the oppressed, evil workforce of Kroger! Can you say "Hallelujah"
------Another fun thing to deal with are the customers who will look at a display of boxed strawberries that have been reduced from $1.98 to $1.00. They're like "SOOOOO.......What's wrong with 'em? They're SPOILED and y'all'd rather poison us than dump 'em and lose a few cents, right?"
These are often the same folks who will bich about having to pay a few cents more for a can of tuna....Go figure~
I used to bite my tongue when it came to stuff like that but lately I've become more bold. I work in the bakery and if someone complains that we're reducing the bread because it's stale I tell them don't buy it then. I had one old woman come up to me with a bag of donuts and ask, "Did these really go up to 65 cents?" Yes. "Here, you can have them. I don't want them then." I told her you shouldn't have taken them if you didn't want them.
The high cost of gas prices, transportation, commodity costs, material goods, etc., etc. is making all kinds of food and non-food products go up in price. Anyone who doesn't understand that...well, there ARE places you can go to to get your head examined...
That, notwithstanding, yes...milk used to be $1.99. Yes, it used to be on sale for $1.77. I remember when you could buy a gallon for $1.50 or if you go back even futher, much less. And yes, stamps used to be 5 cents, and the dollar used to be worth a dollar...And penny candy WAS penny candy! And now, stuff has gone up, and we're all paying through the nose...Yes, I get that! I completely understand. I'VE BEEN THERE!
Compared to many other places, Kroger's prices are still very much competitive, if not better (Look at the 10 for 10's alone...). But, if there is anyone who thinks the prices are going to be going down anytime soon, well...like I said at the beginning, there are places where you get your head examined...Just sayin'...
Problem is, there's not much people can do to change it. And yet, some things like milk will always be bought. And back when milk was $1.77, everyone balked at a $2.49 price. Now it's $2.49, and they're still buying it like it's going out of style.
Somebody either needs to go on a milk "fast", get their kids to go on a milk "fast", or start using less gas. I highly doubt, in this world today, that any of those things will ever come to fruition...It won't happen, so we all need to bite the bullet a little. Just being honestly blunt here, but then again, you never hear real honesty about anything anymore, do you?
Nobody ever says we have to like it, but then again, no one has any real solutions. And there will be customers who continue to complain...Sure, I empathize with the customers...I sympathize because...hey, I'm a shopper, too. My paycheck is going for food, too. But, I've seen this coming for a while now. I can't say I wasn't warned...
It's only too bad more people don't see the writing on the wall...
At least, with markdowns, you can give the customers a bit of a break. And I'm not afraid to say that I think Kroger quality can be just as good. I had a customer tell me that they used to freeze eggs back in Iraq in the '80's, when there was a war going on...and that, many commodities like basic food staples were hard to come by, so they froze a lot of things. She said they would freeze eggs for the bad days when they were starving to death, and food was scarce. Here in this country, there is still so much abundance, and someone complains of a markdown? (Why is this marked down?...there must be something wrong with it, etc., etc...heard it all before...) I've spent my fair share of money on markdown items, sale items...and am not afraid to pay full price either...And rarely have I ever had an issue with a product.
And just for the record, a markdown item is not always close-dated. Maybe the wrong item was sent, a mispick...maybe, the warehouse had a surplus of eggs for Easter, and a lot of stores received special distributions, just to get rid of them quickly. And they go on a special sale. Maybe it's a discontinued item. And I've read that there are a lot of items in which the quality might be questioned, but the product is still safe to eat. Maybe the item can't be sold at full price, but it's not "bad", either. And for every rule, there ARE exceptions. But, I'm still here...and I've been shopping for years and years. So what does that tell you?
I do think, though, that there are worse things to complain about besides high prices and markdowns. The ones who complain will always just find something else to complain about anyway.
The high cost of gas prices, transportation, commodity costs, material goods, etc., etc. is making all kinds of food and non-food products go up in price. Anyone who doesn't understand that...well, there ARE places you can go to to get your head examined...
That, notwithstanding, yes...milk used to be $1.99. Yes, it used to be on sale for $1.77. I remember when you could buy a gallon for $1.50 or if you go back even futher, much less. And yes, stamps used to be 5 cents, and the dollar used to be worth a dollar...And penny candy WAS penny candy! And now, stuff has gone up, and we're all paying through the nose...Yes, I get that! I completely understand. I'VE BEEN THERE!
Compared to many other places, Kroger's prices are still very much competitive, if not better (Look at the 10 for 10's alone...). But, if there is anyone who thinks the prices are going to be going down anytime soon, well...like I said at the beginning, there are places where you get your head examined...Just sayin'...
Problem is, there's not much people can do to change it. And yet, some things like milk will always be bought. And back when milk was $1.77, everyone balked at a $2.49 price. Now it's $2.49, and they're still buying it like it's going out of style.
Somebody either needs to go on a milk "fast", get their kids to go on a milk "fast", or start using less gas. I highly doubt, in this world today, that any of those things will ever come to fruition...It won't happen, so we all need to bite the bullet a little. Just being honestly blunt here, but then again, you never hear real honesty about anything anymore, do you?
Nobody ever says we have to like it, but then again, no one has any real solutions. And there will be customers who continue to complain...Sure, I empathize with the customers...I sympathize because...hey, I'm a shopper, too. My paycheck is going for food, too. But, I've seen this coming for a while now. I can't say I wasn't warned...
It's only too bad more people don't see the writing on the wall...
At least, with markdowns, you can give the customers a bit of a break. And I'm not afraid to say that I think Kroger quality can be just as good. I had a customer tell me that they used to freeze eggs back in Iraq in the '80's, when there was a war going on...and that, many commodities like basic food staples were hard to come by, so they froze a lot of things. She said they would freeze eggs for the bad days when they were starving to death, and food was scarce. Here in this country, there is still so much abundance, and someone complains of a markdown? (Why is this marked down?...there must be something wrong with it, etc., etc...heard it all before...) I've spent my fair share of money on markdown items, sale items...and am not afraid to pay full price either...And rarely have I ever had an issue with a product.
And just for the record, a markdown item is not always close-dated. Maybe the wrong item was sent, a mispick...maybe, the warehouse had a surplus of eggs for Easter, and a lot of stores received special distributions, just to get rid of them quickly. And they go on a special sale. Maybe it's a discontinued item. And I've read that there are a lot of items in which the quality might be questioned, but the product is still safe to eat. Maybe the item can't be sold at full price, but it's not "bad", either. And for every rule, there ARE exceptions. But, I'm still here...and I've been shopping for years and years. So what does that tell you?
I do think, though, that there are worse things to complain about besides high prices and markdowns. The ones who complain will always just find something else to complain about anyway.
i'm not one who'se been blessed with alot of patience. sometimes i get customers who want a 1/2 pound of ham or turkey. so i reach into the case and pull out a butt of meat to slice up for them. they see the end and say "ohh mmyy, you're not gonna give me the end piece now are you??!!" I'm think to myself "you're damn right i am". then if i do go get a new one out of the walk-in i would say, "regardless of if i cut it off this one or that one you will still be getting the end. its still 100% turkey even if it comes from the middle or the end." it cracks me up! then some people want their stuff cut real thin. i i crank up the good ol' slicer and turn the dial to as low as it will go and shave off a paper thin piece to show. they grab hold of the deli paper with the transparent piece of meat on it and inspect it of a minute or two as if they were buying a damn cadilac car! WTF! its deli meat! who the hell cares if its sliced dead on thin or a littlle bit thick thin LOL. Then the worst are the people who order that Hot Souse and Head Cheese. Kahn's Delux bologna is bad enough but to order up some Xtra Hot Souse - whoa....
I work in the deli too and I know exactly what you mean about the people who don't want the end pieces. Sometimes I'll toss the piece I have up on the scale and read it to them "You wanted a pound and there's still a pound and a quarter here, that's plenty to cut from, don't worry." A lot of times that works. And yep, I've gotten the "really thin" nitpickers too.
One year we got a woman who had ordered one of our Thanksgiving boxed dinners - it comes cold and it says in large print over and over on the paper that it's a cold dinner - and she began bawling in the store because she had told her friends that she was going to cook dinner and it was cold and now they were going to know she lied. Seriously? Then she went and got the manager and he made us cook it. Which took just as long as it would have taken her at home.
One year we got a woman who had ordered one of our Thanksgiving boxed dinners - it comes cold and it says in large print over and over on the paper that it's a cold dinner - and she began bawling in the store because she had told her friends that she was going to cook dinner and it was cold and now they were going to know she lied. Seriously? Then she went and got the manager and he made us cook it. Which took just as long as it would have taken her at home.
He shouldn't have done that because she'll just pull the same stunt next time. You can't keep those dinners hot and nobody picks them up when they say they're going to. The ones who want one early don't show until late and the ones who order one for later in the day always come in early expecting you t have it ready for them. Besides, if she wanted her friends to think she had cooked Thanksgiving dinner wouldn't it look more convincing if she was seen cooking and serving the food from her own dishers rather than from those aluminum pans?
