There was one manager or co-manager from each store (not sure if it was just the district or the whole division), all the coordinators, and a bunch of Cincinnati big wigs. There had to have been at least 50 or more of them. They broke off into groups and went around from department to department. Luckily, my job allows me to move around. So if they were in one spot, I would be somewhere else. Of course we had to have everything overfilled for presentation purposes. They even brought in extra people from other stores to help out in produce and meat to make sure they were completely stocked by 7:00 AM. Deli and bakery didn't get any extra help. Several of us were there at 5:00 AM or earlier. We had everything filled to capacity and it looked picture perfect and of course they spend about two seconds in the department and don't say a word on how it looks.
The fresh and friendly walks were pathetic. We just finished our second one a couple days ago, and it was two weeks of putting on a damn show to make the Cincy bigwigs happy. do they honestly think that is how the stores look all the time? We overfilled product, we had our baker coming in at midnight to make sure everything was out, with another person coming in to help her at 3am. Just about everyone was scheduled that day, which should have been obvious that that meant the rest of the week we had less hours, but they didn't care. It was all about putting on a show for a bunch of co-managers' that really don't even care about our stores sales. They didn't even see how the store really operates. The whole thing made no damn sense, all it did was stress out everyone.
I don't know if other divisions are like this, but our presidents home store is allotted a ton more hours to keep the store always "grand open ready".
Why aren't all stores given the same treatment so that all stores can better serve the customers that come through? Would that not be in line with the Customer 1st motto that this company so enjoys spouting regularly? You know what kind of message this clearly sends? It's more important for a store to look good for the executives rather than the customers... you know, the ones that sign our paychecks, as management/corporate likes to remind us so often. Same thing when company is coming. Extra hours suddenly materialize to get the store stocked, fresh, clean and full of employees to be on hand to assist customers in front of the big shots. What about when the big shots aren't in town? Suddenly, it's no longer a priority to get the store stocked, fresh, clean and full of employees to be on hand to assist customers. Are these fat cat business execs really, truly delusional enough to believe that the stores that they're touring always look this good? No, I refuse to believe that's possible because these empty suits must see the same reports we see every morning, which highlight a lack of friendliness, freshness, customer service as well as too many out of stocks. The company is no where near its target OSAT scores which it continues to miss year after year, and continues to require further revision time and again.
When company comes to visit a store, it's nothing but a reassurance play. The district coordinators/managers scramble to make sure that when their bosses walk into a store, they can walk around, smile and pat each other on the back for being such great "leaders". It's all about maintaining the illusion that things are running smoothly and that the future is promising. Cover up the problems rather than address them. Then, the district coordinators/managers get praised by the big kahunas for doing such a terrific job running the district, and likely enjoy bonuses as a result as well as a path to a higher, wealthier position in the company. Meanwhile, while the corporate folks are congratulating one another and looking forward to bigger, fatter bank accounts and the district coordinators/managers are thinking about promotions and bonuses, the threads holding these stores together are slowly snapping one by one, and the more over-worked, stressed and disgruntled the employees become, the harder and harder it will be to put on a good show for these people, and eventually... eventually, with all the other shopping options out there, more and more customers will become dissatisfied with Kroger and shop elsewhere. Employees are going elsewhere, now more than ever, due to the better pay options that have become a reality at other retail outlets/fast foods, and the customers will follow... because they won't be able to find what they need on the shelves or an employee to help them in a reasonable time frame and they won't be able to check out fast because the front end has become a barren landscape with FES and management paging again and again for surge help that will no longer exists or exists in such small numbers that it no longer is enough to make up the difference.
There's still time to fix the problems, but the more time passes without these problems being addressed, the bigger they become and the longer it's going to take to fix, and harder, too, and corporate is showing no signs of wising up, either. Oh well.
