it seems kroger across the board is understaffed. Why the hell don't they look into why people are dropping like flies from this company. People aren't treated according to kroger core values, that's obvious. As more people leave, your workload gets unbearable and they just push you to a breaking point cause that workload is still expected without using any extra hours or overtime. I'm pretty sure the top dogs only have their own personal bottom line in mind. And those stupid pins. I'm center store and have gotten like 5 shout outs And I've never received a pin. And besides, if bonuses are really based on OSAT then why do I care about driving it. my store basically stole 20 hours this week from my department and told me that's where they were saving hours, meanwhile, I'm now running a day behind on my trucks, yet get my talil jumped because I had approved overtime one day, then denied they approved it. I've totally lost respect for kroger. There is no work life balance Because you're too stressed and exhausted to have a life outside work. I like how when you go to corporate meetings and training it's one thing and they're so nice and make you feel like you mean something to the company but at store level you mean nothing. You can't work hard enough, fast enough and aren't good enough. is it just me? Or is it like this everywhere?
I work in a store thats 60 people short and they've been encouraging us to post on facebook that we're hiring. If we show management the posting, they give us a free pop card.
The Kroger stores in my area have been running job fairs for MONTHS on end. Not even the influx of minors/students during the summer break has helped ease the severe understaffing issue. But, I can see why though. There's a bunch of places here that start you off at an even HIGHER pay. Hell, the Quizno's and Schlotzsky's here START a rookie, inexperienced crew member at a comfortable $8.50, compared to a $7.35 that the Kroger stores here start people out with. Oh and at least at those places there's plenty of opportunity to work a 40-hour week. One of my friends (fresh out of high school, working a job before college) worked a 45-hour week in one of those restaurants.
I don't think the fact Kroger starts you out at minimum wage has much to do with why people don't stay. I started out at minimum wage ($3.35/hr.) and I've worked there 25 years. The problem is back then you had greater chance for advancement. As you proved yourself, you would get more hours. Full time was difficult to get but not impossible. Now, Kroger wants to keep new hires working only a few hours a week so they don't have to pay benefits. To help accomplish this, Kroger has come up with all these algorithms that are suppose to magically tell you how many people you need to schedule and when, how much product you need to order and how much you need to put out. Guess what, none of them work. Kroger thinks it can run its stores with all new people getting less than 30 hours a week by just telling them to do what the RF unit tells them to do. It doesn't work. It might work if customers bought the exact same things on the same day all the time and if every order came in at the same time each day and every employee showed up on time and did the same amount of work as every other employee, but none of those things is going to happen. There are too many variables that require an experienced human brain to fix. Kroger needs to stop relying so much on algorithms and start relying more on people.
I don't like WalMart that much at all, but after working at Kroger I've changed my mind. I went to Walmart last week and I swear, they had an employee or two on almost every single isle stocking, helping customers, just looking like they were really enjoying themselves and having a good time at work. I go into my Kroger store now and every employee is angry, long lines, everyone rushing around, it's just chaos. Every single trip to Kroger I come home without something I intended to buy because it wasn't on the shelf. Plus Kroger has once again changed the packaging on certain products. I can't believe I'm saying this but it's true, the new packaging is worse than that ugly Pssst with the orange owl. Took me forever to find the dang green beans I buy for my dog. (She's on a diet) Our Kroger is really going downhill in more ways than one.
I stopped into a local Italian restaurant yesterday to pick up a to go order and this guy sitting at the bar says "Heh, Kroger lady....". I listened to him gripe about Kroger for 10 minutes while I was waiting for my order, he said he never ever will shop there again. I see all of my regular customers at my local Walmart now. Times are changing and I think customers are getting sick and tired of Kroger just like the employees.
Here's my main issue. I'm a bagger, I don't mind the work and I like that I can move around fairly well. I don't like however that I am stuck at minimum wage. I can see starting out at minimum wage for the probation period, but half the reason we lose so many baggers is that even the high school students can find a job paying more elsewhere. Kroger fits well with my college schedule, and I like the managers for the most part. If it wasn't for the fact that some of the more idiotic people from my high school work at Wal-Mart, I'd go there. I just don't want to deal with the drama of them.
I especially find it stupid that the 5 special needs folks that are also baggers are still only getting $7.25 an hour and they've been there for over a decade each. One's been there for nearly 30 years! He really likes the work, but gets too confused to do stocking easily so he can't transfer to a different department where he'd work on his own.
It's not just the low pay and ****ty hours, it's also how people are treated. At my new job I get a consistent 37+ hours and leave no later than 2pm; whereas at Kroger, I got 28 when a full-timer was on vacation. Otherwise I got an average of 20-ish hours, getting as little as 8 hours (after I told them about my other job), and I maybe got a morning shift 5 times in the 10 months I was there. If you're a high school student who don't want to go into fast food (where you can easily get 40 hours a week), then sure, 20 hours here isn't too bad. But when you're a sole income trying to raise a family, it doesn't help much at all. Not to mention coming home every night and pretty much so wiped out from a mere 5 hour shift that going out is not an option.
I agree, At my store we are ALWAYS hiring. New people get hired and there is barely anytime to train them, they see everyone is rushing around in a bad mood griping about the managers, (usually rightfully so). How there schedule is always different and could vary from 8 -30 whenever and they start looking for a new job. almost every time. Everywhere around here pays more starting out even as a high school-er and has a steady schedule.
They often ask you to stay extra and EXPECT you too, and try to make you feel guilty if you don't. The whole store is massive and is barely ran on a skelington crew, often only because 1 or 2 guys stay for an extra 2-6 hours. The cao and schedule writer is trash and DOES NOT WORK, everyone at level 2-4 knows that. But the big dogs are to prideful, or maybe scared of losing there job or worse, stockholders, once they finally catch wind of kroger's slow implosion. Almost everyone at manager level and up is just in it for themselves and does not try to better the company, but instead, line their pockets and sweep problems under the rug like (make it right, what a ******* joke), hoping they will retire before **** really hits the fan. The good managers who understand the company and worked their way up soon get frustrated at the lack of sense at that level and the fact they have to do everyone else's work they soon look and find another job. Plenty of places will easily take you for your experience at kroger and will happily give you thousands more just because they know you are coming from a terribly managed company and you will bust your *** just because you are happy to be out of that place. Yes, other business and companys know kroger is a bad place to work, often hiring multiple people at the same time from kroger hearing about how bad it is. I have been with kroger for about 5 years and have seen over 100 co, assossiate and managers and very very few last very long if they are good. You can take my word for all this or come work at kroger as a stocker and find out. I really do wish there would be a change in kroger though. Morale can't get much lower in the SW.
my store is understaffed also. I have 28 years and we need to go back to the old way of scheduling. all departments got enough hours. you would worked 34-40 hours a week for 12 weeks and yu were full time. what I make a hour used to be considered good money but now you are barely surviing because prices are so high. I have always thought that corporate sould have to work right in astore and the maybe they would understand what employees goes through with.
This might need a rant thread of its own, but anyone else tired of the constant "corporate's coming clean everything!" that seems to be happening a lot, at least in my region. **** if you can afford to have extra people around on days before and of corporate's visit, do it all the time so we don't have to speed clean ****. The other day the freaking grocery manager was just chunking go-backs into the dumpster because it was a few days before the 4th and we hadn't had time to get them all put away with only two people.
A few weeks back, I was working @ another store, helping their stock crew. A guy I used to work with at another store was there and he told me, the store had a job hiring fair and there were 70 applications turned in. Of those 70 applications, only 2, YES TWO applications were deemed worthy for an interview for employment!
EVERY single place around here INCLUDING the walmart down the road and the publix down there road pays $2+ more. Everyone quits here.
We have the lead dairy and 1 night crew working dairy.
NOBODY in nutrition (pulled a produce guy to do it)
like maybe 3 or 4 people in produce.
deli/bakery maybe 5 or 6 people including lead/backup/decorator.
we dont have anyone on utility or if we do its high school kids who dont clean
our store is a mess. our front end is even low on people.
funny thing is our hours keep getting cut too. but theyll give OT for people doing ribs. even when theres no milk/eggs out or any tomatoes out..
I left because I couldn't make a living wage as a courtesy clerk. And I know while I was there, many people from deli and my fellow Front Enders left for the same or similar reasons.
I had heard that corporate was mailing out surveys to employees that quit in order to learn the reasons why they quit. I don't know if this is true or if it's a regional/district/division type of thing or what, but true or not, I doubt it makes any difference, just as I doubt the responses given in the Associate Insight Survey makes any difference. It's a company that doesn't care about its employees and it's a company that only pretends to care about its customers. That's the impression I and others get from the Kroger Company.
You may have some members of management that care in your store. You may have a department head that cares in your store. That all may make things a little more pleasant now and again and here and there, but ultimately, regardless of how much your store management team may care and feel your pain and frustration, there is very little even a store manager can do. Corporate micro-manages and controls most aspects of the stores. Coordinators and district/divisional/regional managers demand stuff a certain way, and store management has no choice but to go along with those instructions. Doesn't matter what you know what works/what doesn't work based on your experience in your particular store. The higher-ups don't care. All stores are to be run the same and feedback is "welcomed" but ignored.
The company looks at employees as a controllable cost, not an asset worth cultivating and retaining. That's why there isn't proper training. That's why the pay is so poor. Keep the controllable cost down by discouraging full time status, fostering a work environment that encourages people to not stick around long - hence avoiding "costly" pay raises and the earning of vacation/personal hours and using ELMS/e-Sked to set unrealistic standards and using those unrealistic standards to keep the hours down.
Kroger is growing by breaking employees' backs and wills. Low payscales and a high turnover of people that aren't sticking around to obtain raises/benefits equals more stores that can be built, a higher stock price and bigger bonuses for the big shots. This way of running a company only works for so long. The employees that do stick around become unhappy, and it shows in their work performance and customer service. This is part of the reason stores are failing Customer Connection Shops and are seeing OSAT scores well below company goals. Stores look dirty, aren't well-stocked or well-staffed, and there's a general "I don't give a f***," in the air. So, some customers go to competitors, instead, which is precisely where more and more Kroger employees are going, too... to work at Walmart, Target and pretty much every other retailer and fast food establishment that pays multiple dollars an hour more out there. Kroger benefits are less and less of a reason to stay when you can't afford weekly bills and occasional luxuries.
Kroger continues to ignore what other companies out there that have raised their starting pay well-above minimum wage have come to realize: if you want to retain good help and have enough employees to take care of your customers, you've got to pay better. Pay better, and your employees are more likely to be happy. Happy employees equals happy customers, because a happy employee that has self-worth will be more likely to deliver outstanding customer service.
But Kroger? There, it's all about expanding the bottom line even further at the cost of the employees. That's the way it has been and that's the way it's looking to stay.
EVERY single place around here INCLUDING the walmart down the road and the publix down there road pays $2+ more. Everyone quits here.
We have the lead dairy and 1 night crew working dairy.
NOBODY in nutrition (pulled a produce guy to do it)
like maybe 3 or 4 people in produce.
deli/bakery maybe 5 or 6 people including lead/backup/decorator.
we dont have anyone on utility or if we do its high school kids who dont clean
our store is a mess. our front end is even low on people.
funny thing is our hours keep getting cut too. but theyll give OT for people doing ribs. even when theres no milk/eggs out or any tomatoes out..
I left because I couldn't make a living wage as a courtesy clerk. And I know while I was there, many people from deli and my fellow Front Enders left for the same or similar reasons.
EVERY single place around here INCLUDING the walmart down the road and the publix down there road pays $2+ more. Everyone quits here.
We have the lead dairy and 1 night crew working dairy.
NOBODY in nutrition (pulled a produce guy to do it)
like maybe 3 or 4 people in produce.
deli/bakery maybe 5 or 6 people including lead/backup/decorator.
we dont have anyone on utility or if we do its high school kids who dont clean
our store is a mess. our front end is even low on people.
funny thing is our hours keep getting cut too. but theyll give OT for people doing ribs. even when theres no milk/eggs out or any tomatoes out..
I left because I couldn't make a living wage as a courtesy clerk. And I know while I was there, many people from deli and my fellow Front Enders left for the same or similar reasons.
FESlave.........good to see you back! How's Home Depot? What's up with that pic of the tree lol!!!
The company looks at employees as a controllable cost, not an asset worth cultivating and retaining. That's why there isn't proper training. That's why the pay is so poor. Keep the controllable cost down by discouraging full time status, fostering a work environment that encourages people to not stick around long - hence avoiding "costly" pay raises and the earning of vacation/personal hours and using ELMS/e-Sked to set unrealistic standards and using those unrealistic standards to keep the hours down.
We're regarded as liabilities rather than assets. Very sad and stupid, I think.
Totally spot on. It's sad that there are so many employees making very little, working like chickens with their tails on fire, knowing management on up could give 2 craps about us, while the CEO rakes in 36 million....shame on kroger
I'd rather all the min wage workers get a raise, if even a small one, than have stupid hats and aprons and different shirts and those pain in the behind aisle invaders that just get in the way.
I'd rather all the min wage workers get a raise, if even a small one, than have stupid hats and aprons and different shirts and those pain in the behind aisle invaders that just get in the way.
Aisle invaders are those signs that stick out from the shelf. They may be an advertised price, or say something about kroger. They are those things that prevent you from getting that 1 item on the shelf because it's in the way
The only reasons I am still at Krogers is because I am still in high school, I don't have a diploma and I'm not 18. The amount of work that is expected along with under-staffing and putting up with customers is starting to wear out our produce department. Stuff isn't getting done that needs to because we don't have the time or because they hire ass-holes who dont work and wont get rid of them. Then people who try to give a $hit get yelled at by the management because the 50 pounds of poop that they want us to shove in a 5 pound bag isnt fitting. Part of the problem is they want us to 1. Cover floral when the florist leaves. 2. Every 15 minutes some one has to be be a greater for the department and talk to EVERY customer( attempt to raise OSAT acknowledgement scores). 3. Go up and run a stupid cash register or bag every 15 minutes.
I am lucky that I am getting 40 hr weeks during the summer and around 25-30 hr weeks during the school year, but compared to the amount of work and pay my friends get, it is disappointing. They work half as much as me and still get the same pay. Thanks Kroger.
And another thing, we always get suspicious when ex-walmart employees come to work for us. Why leave when you start out at $9.50 and do less work?
Aisle invaders are those signs that stick out from the shelf. They may be an advertised price, or say something about kroger. They are those things that prevent you from getting that 1 item on the shelf because it's in the way
Ah, okay we call them the flippers, because they tend to get bent and flip back and forth, back and forth by customers.
He really likes the work, but gets too confused to do stocking easily so he can't transfer to a different department where he'd work on his own. 
