In the decade-plus I've been in my business, this crap of customers has grown from just a few items stacked up behind the customer service desk, to literal MOUNTAINS of warming frozen groceries and cooling deli items. My store alone loses as much as 10 K a WEEK because of this. I think we need to impose the competion's ploy of a 15% restocking fee.
Let's hear your Kroger stories/thoughts on this. . . . .
The way people are nowadays is appalling really. I've seen people take down an entire rack of bacon and go through every single one and leave it dumped on the bottom well. I've told our lunchmeat clerk if he sees somebody doing this go over to their area and start conditioning all around them until they either pick it up or leave.
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My Views and Opinions do not reflect that of the Kroger company. I'm an indivdual expressing my 1st amendment right.
Yea, Cutter, it's pretty disgusting. Like I said, I've watched this problem grow from a minor annoyance to a full-blown profit crisis. The people doing this don't seem to realize that crap like this directly leads to increased prices (like when people walk off with Kroger shopping carts; there is a street in my town down the road from a Kroger store, where the ditches are littered with 'em).
Another problem with perishable take-backs: Some workers will put them back in the coolers after the products have been contaminated. I've personally gotten food poisoning twice from 2 different Kroger stores and once from my own store from this sh*t. And if it's happening to me, you can bet it's happening to others.
I've had my second case of food poisoning deli food at Kroger. This time it was a pre-made sandwich I ate on break.
The go backs are eyepopping when there's no hours for people to do them.
Our newest front end manager just pulled our go back shelves from behind customer service and put them out front for all the customers to watch as the crap piles up.
I'd seen this in another store before I started working for Kroger and thought it was ghetto. What a horrible last impression to give to your customers!
Putting it there puts it in the way too. I know from experience the customer service line can get long enough it will be between cashiers or courtesy clerks and the go backs. How is that supposed to save time or enhance customer experience ?
I am personally not comfortable leaving alcohol lying out in the front end like that. It's just asking for a 'grab and go'.
I have had people hand me dairy dept cheese while I am marking down deli cheese and ask "can you put this back? I want to buy this one instead" I also have people standing around me decide on a difference guacamole (or whatever) and then just eye me like they really want me to leave so they can put it down without the feeling the hatred burning them from my eyes. The same pack of oscar meyer meat sat in our in-deli cooler for a week because I didn't have time to carry it back to it's spot when I found it, then didn't get around to it when I did have time, then I just forgot about it. I feel bad, especially since half the time if something goes bad in another department, no one scans it out because they either don't know how or don't realize it still needs to be scanned, even if it's not our department.
We used to have iur behind line 14 but there was so much crap there we had to put it out in the middle where everyone can see. I have found people put stuff in the worst places. I've found frozen meals and grapes in the chicken warmer unit up at the registers, I've found a big $20 pack of raw chicken leaking on the top candy racks where someone put it and it leaked onto EVERY shelf below it, I've found yogurt in a gum display, Deli chickens and hot sandwhiches in the drink fridges, salad kits opened and spilled in a foil pan on our baking aisle, raw meat on an apple display, banas turning brown on top of ice cream in the freezer, cold and frozen items in every possible place EXCEPT wheere it goes, and a whole bunch of other crap that we've had to throw out. I often see customers trying to hide unwanted items in the candy racks and will deny putting it there when I ask them for it so it can be sent back and won't pass it to me anyway.
