Values

Date: Sep 16, 2015

Someone forced to change football shirt

Turd Ferguson · Guru

I'm not a big football fan, but I am from Ohio. OSU v Michigan is a pretty big deal up there, and there's always that one guy... or lady that just HAS to be a Michigan fan as a form of some kind of rebellion... or just being an ass.

Considering she's at work, I too would look at that one kinda sideways. She pretty much painted a big target on her back for that one.

OR

This is Kroger after all, so the manager might just be a big OSU fan and was being punitive towards her. Haha... It could go either way, I guess.

thestruggleisreal · Guru

If they say you can wear football shirts, they shouldn't automatically assume that it's gonna be a home team shirt.

Lord_Uboat · Guru

No stores should ever allow employees to wear football jerseys. If consumers were rational and understanding it would be ok.

Date: Sep 16, 2015

I live in Ohio also. In our store we are only allowed to wear OSU shirts and hats on Saturday game days . But I think it's stupid that she was forced to change shirts. The only way we can wear other teams is when they do those stupid our people are great week things and one of them is always wear your favorite sports team.

GenesisOne · Guru

Not at all surprising, really. Some sports fans are ridiculously rabid. If you like or support a team that they don't, some of them will literally treat you as if you're subhuman. It doesn't surprise me that a customer came through and lacked the respect/decency to accept that someone may like a different team than he/she does. So yeah, I agree, it's a bad idea to let employees wear anything sports-related, because there's a high probability that there will be a least one customer that loses his/her you-know-what because an employee had the nerve to support a team that the customer doesn't like.

4hourrush · Guru

OSU is so damn overrated anyway, i don't even care about football and i'd wear a Michigan shirt just to spite them.

Going 4011 · Guru

Yea at our store we're only allowed to wear (our town college)'s gear, and even that's only on days with a home game. Otherwise people get too snippy, and if we were allowed to wear them all the time (before we could wear them during football season on Fri/Sat/Sun), people will get confused about who's working at Kroger and who's not.

nocturnia · Guru

Talk about recipe for disaster. People get stupid about their favorite teams (as if the players give a $hit about the fans).

Might as well be wearing politician's buttons.

Date: Sep 17, 2015

I'm not a sports fan, so I'll never get rooting for a team. Eventually all the players swap out for other new players. Are you cheering for the mascot and the logo regardless of who plays on the team?

Date: Sep 17, 2015

4hourrush wrote:
OSU is so damn overrated anyway, i don't even care about football and i'd wear a Michigan shirt just to spite them.

If you call OSU "overrated" by beating Michigan 13 times in the last 15 years, You don't care nor do you know anything about football.

4hourrush · Guru

So they can beat Michigan, big whoop. I don't know much about football but I do know that OSU chokes a lot in important games.

Cathy · Guru

We were allowed to wear football shirts for the Louisville vs. Michigan game, and yes, there was one employee that wore his Michigan shirt. He wasn't trying to be sarcastic or anything, he came from Michigan and that was his favorite team.

As far as them making the woman switch her shirt, I think that it was totally wrong for the manager to make her do that. When they tell the employees that they can were their football shirts, they should account for those that might have come from other states.

As far as being offensive, I think that it is offensive to force someone to change their shirt just because it doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of them. It's time we start ACTING more inclusive instead of just STATING that we are so.

kroagrr · Guru

kroger-values-with-transparent-bckgd.jpg?sfvrsn=0 In fulfilling our commitment, we always live by our core values:

. . .

Diversity: We seek and embrace differences in the backgrounds, cultures and ethnicities of all associates, customers and vendors.

-- http://www.thekrogerco.com/about-kroger/values

Your different background and culture is cool and all . . . unless that involves wearing a different-colored shirt.

Diversity: It's a huge core value we always live by . . . except on football Saturdays.

Date: Sep 20, 2015

RE: Someone forced to change football shirt

Going 4011 · Guru

Race is a protected class (like gender, religion, etc), what football team you root for ain't. Corporate won't care any more than if someone was asked to change out of their Wal-Mart shirt.

Date: Sep 24, 2015

I lived near Cincy, so we're allowed to wear Bengals gear on game days. One guy in produce always wears a Steeler's jersey instead. People rib him for it, in a joking way, but no one really cares.

If it's just a jersey with nothing actually offensive or obscene on it, you shouldn't have to change it. Sports rivalry should be fun, not serious. But if it was a customer complaint, I'm not surprised, seeing as we're supposed to kiss their asses. One customer at my store complained about the music being too loud once, so for a while whenever she came in, management straight up just turned the music off.

Date: Oct 13, 2015

I think this was in the store I work in...

4hourrush · Guru

Here we're allowed to wear any football jersey. The flyer specifially says "Bengals (or any other team)".

loganbourne · Newbie

I live in Hew York in a sport department of https://topbetting.in/ and we are never forced to do something like this. Mostly i wear suit. But we often go watching some games with my coworkers, or going to the matches in real life. In these days we wear New York Yankees. There was a situation when one of my coworkers wore Michigan t-shirt, but it was a joke from his side...