Get ready for more useless t-shirts! Our ASP today was going around the store asking for everyone's shirt size for the upcoming "Refresh"roll-out. We did one of these pointless "Refresh" initiatives around three and a half years ago with Kroger wasting (ahem, excuse me... spending) lots of money on t-shirts, extra hours on meetings that amounted to little more than "Be Friendly! Say Hello! Acknowledge, Assist Appreciate!", and colorful signage. All useless stuff that accomplished little or nothing. Instead of using that money to better staff stores and pay employees decent and competitive wages (so, you know, people are happy to be there and you keep the good people from ditching Kroger the moment they get a better offer elsewhere) and provide employees with functional equipment to get the job done, Kroger again chooses to waste (I'm sorry, spend) money on irrelevant, stupid stuff that will not at all help the company fight off and pull ahead of the competition. It's incredible just how out of touch these people making the big bucks are and how many times they insist on pushing the same, failed ideas.
It'd be nice if they used the money on that dumb stuff on actual store repairs and equipment. Not a problem in the large stores in wealthy areas, but local, mid-small sized stores are neglected horribly.
Yep... wouldn't it be nice if Kroger instead used this money to repair/replace broken or malfunctioning equipment in its stores, as well as purchase new equipment so that there would be enough to go around? A few additional power jacks and pallet jacks would be handy to have, huh? I'm sure every department would benefit from additional, perfectly functioning equipment, and by benefit, I mean productivity would go up.
And, you know, imagine actually treating employees like the family that they are supposedly a part of at Kroger. Reduce stress and increase retention rates by providing competitive pay, more vacation time (you shouldn't have to work ten years just to get a third week of vacation!) and provide better employee discounts (10% on Kroger-brand products? How about at least 10% off on all products, period? Maybe more employees would buy their groceries at Kroger!), and of course lastly, by better staffing the departments. I'm not saying just give everyone more money and more help and that's it... departments need strong, but fair, leadership to ensure all employees are carrying their fair share of the weight and meeting expectations.
That's how you boost OSAT. That's how you make your competition less of threat. More and more customers will want to come to Kroger because of how great the stores will look and how fresh the products will be and how friendly everyone is. Invest in your business and your people and watch it pay off in a big way a year down the road.
Instead of using that money to better staff stores and pay employees decent and competitive wages . . . and provide employees with functional equipment to get the job done, Kroger again chooses to waste (I'm sorry, spend) money on irrelevant, stupid stuff . . .
