"I used to be a manager for kroger for 20 years and if a store looked like this on a friday morning, I'd have been fired"
-well times have changed and they're worried about cutting costs...
True story. We're so short handed that instead of conditioning today I had to run backstock. The aisles look BAD but apparently that doesn't matter anymore. Isn't it all about the customer? ("I'm always putting the customer first" says Clarence on the store commercial!) Seems like if we wanted to put the customer first, we'd have enough hours to condition AND run backstock. The good thing about running backstock is that 90% of it went out, the bad thing is the shelves still look horrible because the conditioner is almost always having to stop and do something else because we don't have extra help like we used to. What are the corporate worms going to say when they waddle in one day and see this catastrophe? You've got the dsd clerk doing his job AND running bread (his day is shot). Conditioner is running backstock, grocery manager is doing ordering, filling displays, etc, that leaves two grocery guys (at 8 hours each) to do 2 trucks...1 truck each. That's ridiculous. I just don't understand how things got so bad so quickly. I didn't even factor in the lovely calls of "customer first [insert name of the guy who's supposed to be sorting and running the truck!]" So basically we can't get our own job done, yet somehow we're supposed to help front end too. Seems legit.
edit: this is repetitive as I've said it in other posts, but when they rolled out order [R]evolution, they said we should be able to run backstock EVERY DAY before we run the truck. HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHA. We're lucky to get through all the backstock aisles once a week.
edit: this is repetitive as I've said it in other posts, but when they rolled out order [R]evolution, they said we should be able to run backstock EVERY DAY before we run the truck. HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHA. We're lucky to get through all the backstock aisles once a week.
I work in bakery and one of my jobs is to go back and and get the frozen bakery order every day. Ever since they've started that Order Evolution, the back freezer has been a disaster. Luckily the head frozen food guy usually puts our stuff where I can get to it because he knows I always get it early. Some days are so bad you can't even get in the door. On those days he says he'll dump the entire frozen grocery order for the next day because he says there won't be any place to put it. His problem now is he doesn't have any permanent full time help. He has three helpers but they all float between frozen, bread, day grocery, and nutrition.
I hear of other stores hours getting cut in different divisions than mine. Yes our stores hours got trimed but we still have help to do what we have to do. sometimes it isn't always hours got cut buy rather their is not enough people on the payroll list to take care of the needs of the business.
Our store is supposed to be set by 8:00AM everyday. That NEVER happens. Customers complain on the receipt tracker, on online review sites and in person, but management's response to all of this? "Work faster". That is not a solution - especially when having to play catch-up from the previous day or two. Maybe if the closing co-managers would actually WALK and INSPECT the departments before leaving for the night, like they are supposed to, they'd see why the store looks terrible in the morning hours, and maybe if the opening store manager/co-manager would ASK why the departments look like they do in the morning instead of COMPLAINING, they'd have a clear picture of what's going on. But nope... just keep doing things that further demoralize the workforce and then proceed to get even more red in the face when things get even worse.
The problem with Kroger scheduling and ELMS and whatnot is it's based on the misconception that employees are working in an environment that is perfect all the time. As if there's never any disorganization in the backroom/freezer/receiving/wherever. As if every department always achieves a great close and always manages a perfect open. As if surge/relief help and cart round-ups are only needed in super rare occasions. As if everyone is always 100% proficient at their jobs, executing tasks with the accuracy and speed of robots. As if customers are entirely independent and seldom require help. As if the weather doesn't sometimes influence shopping patterns. As if sporting events don't sometimes influence shopping patterns. Despite what the high paid experts in the cozy Kroger executive offices, no, you can NOT come up with an expected task completion time for EVERY DAMN TASK.
Here's an original thought... how about store level management assess conditions on a daily basis and form action plans accordingly? On a similar note, how about Kroger realize that not every store is going to function the same way and that each store has different needs, to an extent, based on location, competition, and consumer shopping habits? And lastly... how about management and the execs stop staring at the damn raw numbers and charts for a sec and actually take a look at the people doing the labor in the stores and work with them, for a change, to see what can be done to improve conditions for everyone - from the customer to the employee to management at all levels. What a radical thought, huh?
Lately we've had a comanager complain that we aren't set by 9am every day. That we've NEVER been set by 9am the time he's been there.
Well all I have to say on that matter is, no sh*t sherlock. we don't have enough hours to get everything done. yes, they've finally hired some people, but now those people aren't getting enough hours to allow us to train them properly, half of them can't work mornings, and you don't want the second person in until 8am, and you're going to question why it's not set at 9am?
The quality of not just my department, but the whole store has definitely gone downhill recently. our grocery manager is stocking bread half the time now.
what do you guys mean when you say your store is "set" by 8 or 9am? we sort the Kmp in the evening (if it arrives early enough) and finish it the next morning before we start on the day's grocery truck.
what do you guys mean when you say your store is "set" by 8 or 9am? we sort the Kmp in the evening (if it arrives early enough) and finish it the next morning before we start on the day's grocery truck.
The other departments(Bakery, Produce and Deli) have to put out fresh stock and have shelves looking full by 8 or 9am. Bakery probably starts baking at 5am.
For the Grocery Department, basically we want to be set by 730am. That means have the truck ran and store conditioned.
what do you guys mean when you say your store is "set" by 8 or 9am? we sort the Kmp in the evening (if it arrives early enough) and finish it the next morning before we start on the day's grocery truck.
The other departments(Bakery, Produce and Deli) have to put out fresh stock and have shelves looking full by 8 or 9am. Bakery probably starts baking at 5am.
For the Grocery Department, basically we want to be set by 730am. That means have the truck ran and store conditioned.
different for our store. We get the KMP in the evening but don't run it til the next day. Then we run grocery. I don't think a lot of work would get done at my store if stocking was done overnight
what do you guys mean when you say your store is "set" by 8 or 9am? we sort the Kmp in the evening (if it arrives early enough) and finish it the next morning before we start on the day's grocery truck.
The other departments(Bakery, Produce and Deli) have to put out fresh stock and have shelves looking full by 8 or 9am. Bakery probably starts baking at 5am.
For the Grocery Department, basically we want to be set by 730am. That means have the truck ran and store conditioned.
Meat and Seafood, too. The meat and seafood cases are supposed to be fully stocked by eight AM. The store I work at is categorized as a million dollar store and thus the standards are different than at lower volume stores. None of the departments ever meet the setup time, though, and although management complains regularly about it and goes on about "working faster" (yeah, sorry, the problem runs deeper than that!), management never comes up with a practical solution to address the situation.
I have said it before and I'll say it again: part of the key to having a good open is having a good close the night before. However, none of our closing co-managers walk the store or check the departments like they are supposed to before leaving for the night, so the messes that are found in the morning are ridiculous a lot of times. I'm not just blaming the evening people though. I know firsthand some morning people at my store purposely make it so the afternoon/evening people walk into a mess because they get mad the evening people leave things incomplete/in disarray. It's a pretty vicious cycle that leaves morning people saying nasty things about the evening people and vice versa. Department heads are overwhelmed by the situation and management doesn't want to deal with it other than complain about how the sales floor/back rooms look like trash.
It's no wonder we scored near the bottom on the list for our division in the Associate Insight Survey, lol.
