Recently all the cashiers at my store had to go through a """class""" about our "new" produce policy, which is that we can't type in produce anymore, and must scan it. It is something that our store gets graded on by the corporate ****s. Basically... in a nutshell.. **** THIS!
Kroger wants to make ring-tender all important. At least at my store, the faster cashiers get the express registers, which are vastly superior to the regular checkstands. Plenty of slow people get them too, but you're more likely to be put in the express checkstands if you're fast. That is a huge incentive to get your ring-tender up. And now, a huge-ass WRENCH is thrown in this "ring tender is god" dogma, because now we must scan produce instead of typing in the codes!!! It takes 5 seconds to orient the produce such that it will scan, then another 2 seconds to get it to scan with the handscanner, not to mention that most produce at the store doesn't even ****ing scan. I can't even stress to you how absolutely, utterly retarded this new policy is. Why is corporate full of ****ing knuckleheads who arbitrarily decide how to scan and bag groceries without ever having actually performed the task themselves???
Supposedly, this is because some idiot cashiers aren't able to tell if produce is organic or not, and thus ring ~80% of organic produce as non-organic. I'm sorry, but I'm a meticulous cashier. I always look at the produce I ring up to see if it is organic, or if I'm feeling lazy, I'll ask the customer whether or not they have organic produce. This isn't hard, and I rarely make mistakes this way. How about instead of forcing everyone to scan produce - after YEARS of training people to memorize the codes - we train the cashiers to LOOK at produce with their EYES in order to determine whether or not it's organic???
Naw. **** that, Kroger. You can eat my ass about this. I literally do not give a **** and I will not be adhering to this new policy. If my manager has a problem she can talk to the union. Like... seriously.
-- Edited by snailshell on Tuesday 27th of October 2015 02:58:43 AM
We've got it at our store too, at least since March, and have been heavily pushing it for the last month or so, same rationale given (cashiers/customers scanning organic produce as non-organic). It's a little annoying to get used to because it's different from how we were trained, but our file maintenance quickly ensured that all our produce scans, and we're certainly allowed to type in the PLU if it doesn't scan after the second try. Our goal is to have 30+% of produce scanned instead of typed in, certainly not an impossible goal. As for ring tender and Que, we're still near the top of the charts there so it doesn't seem to be hurting much.
We'll get some hot shot new store manager sometimes who INSISTS we bin lable all the RPCs, the products, and the shelf steel in the cooler. Been through this twice now, and NOPE! It never works.
Recently all the cashiers at my store had to go through a """class""" about our "new" produce policy, which is that we can't type in produce anymore, and must scan it. It is something that our store gets graded on by the corporate ****s. Basically... in a nutshell.. **** THIS!
Kroger wants to make ring-tender all important. At least at my store, the faster cashiers get the express registers, which are vastly superior to the regular checkstands. Plenty of slow people get them too, but you're more likely to be put in the express checkstands if you're fast. That is a huge incentive to get your ring-tender up. And now, a huge-ass WRENCH is thrown in this "ring tender is god" dogma, because now we must scan produce instead of typing in the codes!!! It takes 5 seconds to orient the produce such that it will scan, then another 2 seconds to get it to scan with the handscanner, not to mention that most produce at the store doesn't even ****ing scan. I can't even stress to you how absolutely, utterly retarded this new policy is. Why is corporate full of ****ing knuckleheads who arbitrarily decide how to scan and bag groceries without ever having actually performed the task themselves???
Supposedly, this is because some idiot cashiers aren't able to tell if produce is organic or not, and thus ring ~80% of organic produce as non-organic. I'm sorry, but I'm a meticulous cashier. I always look at the produce I ring up to see if it is organic, or if I'm feeling lazy, I'll ask the customer whether or not they have organic produce. This isn't hard, and I rarely make mistakes this way. How about instead of forcing everyone to scan produce - after YEARS of training people to memorize the codes - we train the cashiers to LOOK at produce with their EYES in order to determine whether or not it's organic???
Naw. **** that, Kroger. You can eat my ass about this. I literally do not give a **** and I will not be adhering to this new policy. If my manager has a problem she can talk to the union. Like... seriously.
-- Edited by snailshell on Tuesday 27th of October 2015 02:58:43 AM
Ok, I have two bunches of bannas, there are no stickers on either one of them. By looking at them, which ones are organic and which ones are regular?
So instead of trying to make sure cashiers look at and identify what they are ringing up, we're training them to NOT look, to NOT identify, but just scan everything like an idiot robot. End result will be cashiers who are even more clueless.
We've got it at our store too, at least since March, and have been heavily pushing it for the last month or so, same rationale given (cashiers/customers scanning organic produce as non-organic). It's a little annoying to get used to because it's different from how we were trained, but our file maintenance quickly ensured that all our produce scans, and we're certainly allowed to type in the PLU if it doesn't scan after the second try. Our goal is to have 30+% of produce scanned instead of typed in, certainly not an impossible goal. As for ring tender and Que, we're still near the top of the charts there so it doesn't seem to be hurting much.
Yeah, so if you fail at scanning the produce, let's assume each of those tries takes a second or two each. So now you've wasted two seconds trying to scan the produce, and it doesn't work. So you have to type in the code, which takes another 0.5-2 seconds to do. That's an extra 2-4+ seconds spent per item that wouldn't have been spent had the cashier just looked at the item and typed in the accompanying code. I'm positive that this drags down ring/tender, especially when you consider that you get more earned tender time when you type in an item as opposed to when you scan it.
A lot of the produce in my store doesn't scan. Either you get "item not found", the code simply won't scan, or the produce doesn't have a scannable sticker on it at all.
I think the ultimate solution to the problem is to train cashiers to NOT be lazy and LOOK at the produce that they are ringing up. Scanning it takes forever and is a hassle for cashiers who have been trained for years to type in codes. I really hate Kroger corporate, to be honest. So much micromanaging that wouldn't be necessary if we actually had hiring standards, proper training and less turnover.
Sounds like they won't learn until the customers start taking stickers off of the cheap products and putting them on the more expensive products. We've caught people doing that at our store.
we are supposed to scan produce now also. this is the stupidest idea that corporate has come up with. lot of produce does not have stickers on them and customers ties produce up in two or three bags and you have to take it out of the bag and the codes will not scan. does the customer know to put 9 in front of the code for organic. the scanning people does not do a good job lately getting any prices in the computer. corporate needs to actually work for a living and see what we do each day. if there is no sticker on like pears you have to guess what kind of pear it is same as tomatoes. you hope you guess the right tomato code and etc. if you have all the produce codes memorise you know what you are doing. I cannot stand corporate Kroger anymore.
Yep and my file clerk sucks. I kept a list of how much produce will not scan. It sounds like they should've made sure that those stickers scan before they started telling everyone they had to start scanning the stickers
If this policy is going to be strictly enforced, they might as well just announce that cucumbers, celery and other non-stickered produce are now free. I have a feeling that the next policy that corporate enforces is going to be even more ridiculous than this. Since when does anything they do make sense?
When I was a checker, they didn't have any type of stickers on the produce. You had to know what the item was. Items that were sold as per each had a "Lookup" number associated with them. You'd key in the number and hit the "Lookup" key on the register. The code for a head of lettuce was 50 Lookup. All the numbers for produce were 2-digit numbers. Eggs were 1-digit numbers starting with 5 for jumbo eggs and increasing in value as the eggs got smaller: 6= extra large, 7=large, 8= medium, etc.
We'll get some hot shot new store manager sometimes who INSISTS we bin lable all the RPCs, the products, and the shelf steel in the cooler. Been through this twice now, and NOPE! It never works.
Screw that. I hardly have enough time to break down our trucks.
When I was a checker, they didn't have any type of stickers on the produce. You had to know what the item was. Items that were sold as per each had a "Lookup" number associated with them. You'd key in the number and hit the "Lookup" key on the register. The code for a head of lettuce was 50 Lookup. All the numbers for produce were 2-digit numbers. Eggs were 1-digit numbers starting with 5 for jumbo eggs and increasing in value as the eggs got smaller: 6= extra large, 7=large, 8= medium, etc.
Did they have organic produce back then or was it all just regular produce?
If you don't know how to make a goddamned sign what makes you think you should be making calls on switching out end caps? I hope you aren't a grocery manager....
Most produce doesn't have stickers, and those that do usually don't stay on well and/or have no barcode. Goddamn corporate dumbasses, take a look at the product you sell instead of assuming...
Most produce doesn't have stickers, and those that do usually don't stay on well and/or have no barcode. Goddamn corporate dumbasses, take a look at the product you sell instead of assuming...
Another one of Kroger's dumb ideas. Let's carry more organic produce like Whole Foods and Sprouts! Whoa, wait a minute, we're loosing money! Let's blame it on the cashiers because we are never wrong, it must be the employees fault.
Like our floral department that doesn't make money. Well, let's see. The comanager said come check at the register and I said I have all these flowers and they aren't in water, can I put them in the buckets real quick? No, just leave them. And they sat there wilting and they were there the next day when I came in. I never buy flowers from Kroger.
