This is just something I want to get off my chest, no real solutions are required.  I have been working at the service desk for almost a year now.  A few months ago I realized I was starting to dread going to work because I knew I would be dealing with angry people that come in by the bus-load (my Kroger is located in a poor neighborhood) that for whatever reason-no matter how many times they have done this before-never seem to have a tracking number for Western Union, know the amount they want for a money order and so want to return it later in the day, want to return a gift card or other form of prepaid cards because they "weren't working", and many more problems.  If they are denied what they want and I have already spoken with a supervisor over the phone, they ask for a manager.  I don't know how it is at other stores, but when someone at my store asks for a manager, I try to actually get them a manager.  I might not agree with a customer, or like their attitude, but I'm not going to play games and call a supervisor over, then a head supervisor, and then finally a manager.  Doing that is a waste of time, holds up the line by causing a distraction (people want to watch the drama unfold rather than pay attention to their transaction), because frankly a manager's word means more to a customer than my floor supervisor's and the experienced customers know the difference between the two, and above all I don't want my customers to remember me as the person who made them jump through hoops when they were trying to reach a solution (I want them to want to see me up at the desk, not to dread seeing me because then our experiences are remembered as good, and so future experiences will be met with better attitudes).   

Recently I have requested to be moved back to a cashier/self-checkout attendant because at my store the pay is the same for all three jobs, and cashier/self-checkout is much less stress to deal with while in school for me.  For the most part, the scheduler has been amazing at keeping me away from the service desk, but every now and then a day like today happens where someone calls off and she needs me up there because I have the training.  Normally I think that's fair and I don't put up any fuss about it because I want us to stay on good terms to keep a flexible schedule and good hours.  Today however, whenever management was called over (one woman refused to take "no" for an answer when trying to return a phone card, a group of frat boys wanted to return three entire boxes of eggs, and another wanted to talk to a manager about the locations of the demonstrations/vendors in the store because she said they were inconvenient and not customer friendly).  One manager swore up and down to me saying "What the f are you saying? What the f are you talking about?  Fine I'll come up".  Another said, "These sort of things should always be addressed by a floor supervisor first you know", even though my floor supervisor was on register and I said so, and asked for the reason for why he should come up and the customer (vendor/demonstration complaint lady) refused at the time to disclose the reason she wanted to speak to a manager so all I could say was that she only wanted to talk to him about it, and finally one point blank said that he wouldn't come up and to deal with it.  The manager that swore to me actually had the nerve to ask if I could stay late tonight as if he never acted inappropriately, I said nope and clocked out.  

When I first started at the desk we had a different, much more involved store manager who breathed down the assistant manager's necks to do their jobs.  Now we have a lazy guy who always smiles, pats people on the back, and tells them not to screw up rather than actually running the store.  Now the assistant managers are out of control with how they treat people (not just me).  Do they think we at the desk or the bakery and deli counters are calling them just for giggles or something?  The poor workers in the bakery have to physically walk up to get a manager when someone flips out on them over a cake because management ignores all of their pages, and the deli workers at my store would rather freak out and get me or a floor supervisor even when they know our efforts are futile because they don't want a hostile manager to yell at them for not heating up someone's single slice pizza even though they say they aren't supposed to!

In essence my complaint is the same as many other complaints here: management at my store sucks.  Thank you for reading and I apologize for being whiny, end rant.