Ours has these loud chimes every hour from 1 PM to 5 PM I think, and after the chime they always play a really upbeat rock song to motivate us. Who makes money doing this crap...
__________________
Anonymous
Date:
RE: Does your store have those annoying top of the hour "conditioning" chimes?
Ours has these loud chimes every hour from 1 PM to 5 PM I think, and after the chime they always play a really upbeat rock song to motivate us. Who makes money doing this crap...
I've noticed that too... and some of those "upbeat songs" are really ironic.
For example, Van Halen's "Jump" is actually about the singer seeing someone who's about to jump off a building to their death and encouraging them. ("You might as well jump.") Saying the original, uncensored title of "Let's Get It Started" in front of management would probably get me written up, if not fired on the spot.
We used to have vocal "freshness check" recordings in the rotation that would go off every two hours until 7 PM, then they got phased out because nobody used them for anything but timekeeping. Now they're bringing them back hourly with the chimes and it's a flip of a coin if anyone will try to enforce them on any particular day. Mostly if the store manager's in a bad mood is when it gets enforced.
Oh and we got stupid extra paperwork that even the store manager doesn't seem to care about, that lasted like a day before closing managers stopped checking at all
-- Edited by ProduceSmartass on Saturday 10th of November 2018 04:47:50 AM
Ours has these loud chimes every hour from 1 PM to 5 PM I think, and after the chime they always play a really upbeat rock song to motivate us. Who makes money doing this crap...
I've noticed that too... and some of those "upbeat songs" are really ironic.
For example, Van Halen's "Jump" is actually about the singer seeing someone who's about to jump off a building to their death and encouraging them. ("You might as well jump.") Saying the original, uncensored title of "Let's Get It Started" in front of management would probably get me written up, if not fired on the spot.
It's interesting to hear "Welcome To The Jungle", too...Talk about ironic?!! I don't WANT none of their "fun and games"! And I know about the original version of that Black Eyed Peas song..."Let's get started...Let's get STUPID!"...Sounds about right!!! They also play that one C+C Music Factory tune, but I think the one they should be playing is "Things That Make You Go Hmmm..."
We used to have a very sudden, startling, and loud chime along with an announcement like "The time is 8:00! Have a great day!" (or something like that). Now, that has been replaced by FOUR very loud and annoying chimes in a row, one right after the other (not very musical, and just sounds like someone is trying to irritate you with noise).
It might as well be indicating "the time is four o'clock", since there are always just 4 chimes. If they want to be creative, they should change to a more pleasant sounding noise (tinkling cymbals, or an attractive sound like the "top of the hour news" soundbyte that has been used by CBS radio for about 50+ years.
Or how about just the sound of a bell tolling? Toll it once for 1 o'clock, twice for two o'clock, 3 times for three o'clock, etc. At least it would have some minor use as far as helping customers know what time it is.
In any case, employees are our store are not instructed to do anything different or special at the top of the hour. That nonsense was encouraged back in about 2015, but probably for at least 2 to 3 years, the managers no longer mention it or expect us to be doing anything different (like special cleaning, doing a freshness check, interacting with customers right at the top of the hour......like they wanted us to do 3 years ago. Those things are already part of our jobs anyway.
I'm probably showing my age here, but does anyone remember when they used to have something similar in department stores? It was never something as obnoxious as what they have now. It was just two or three dings and that was it.
Ours has these loud chimes every hour from 1 PM to 5 PM I think, and after the chime they always play a really upbeat rock song to motivate us. Who makes money doing this crap...
You know, come to think of it... I used to think that ours was every hour for the entire day. But now that you say that... I think it really is only during those hours. I never noticed that.
Hmm, must be because our front end is so loud and spacious that you cannot hear the radio at all. And I work there all the time. Must be a blessing for me, cause I'm not subjected to the crappy Kroger music that the rest of the store is forced to hear.
Yes! I actually like the ironic songs, that come after the chimes. I trained my self because of the old hourly "Ding ding ding, Hello Kroger associates, It's friendly and fresh time". When they took that away for awhile, I lost track of time and started falling behind. Now that they have the conditioning chimes, I'm back on track.
-- Edited by MyOpinion on Monday 12th of November 2018 12:17:54 AM
Yes! I actually like the ironic songs, that come after the chimes. I trained my self because of the old hourly "Ding ding ding, Hello Kroger associates, It's friendly and fresh time". When they took that away for awhile, I lost track of time and started falling behind. Now that they have the conditioning chimes, I'm back on track.
-- Edited by MyOpinion on Monday 12th of November 2018 12:17:54 AM
You know you can always look at a clock. There's clocks on the ovens. There's also clocks on all the telephones. If you can't see it, all you have to do is pick up the receiver and look on the little display screen.
For me, if I look at the clock, time just goes slower. I like to just ignore the clock. You just get lost in the work, and suddenly you wonder what time it is, and it's 5pm. Then you get lost again and wonder what time it is. Oh, it's 8pm, final hour! Get lost again, omg, it's 9pm! I'm outta here!
__________________
Anonymous
Date:
RE: Does your store have those annoying top of the hour "conditioning" chimes?
For me, if I look at the clock, time just goes slower. I like to just ignore the clock. You just get lost in the work, and suddenly you wonder what time it is, and it's 5pm. Then you get lost again and wonder what time it is. Oh, it's 8pm, final hour! Get lost again, omg, it's 9pm! I'm outta here!
It's different if you work on the front end. Since you're stuck in the same spot all day doing the same job, looking at a clock just makes the time go by slower. If you worked in another department where you have several jobs to do and each one has to be completed by a certain time, then keeping an eye on the clock becomes necessary.
Hells yes. They are so damn annoying! Even more annoying when the people that don't do much in the first place, are the ones that are telling someone ELSE, that it's mandatory now to do them.
I also agree the "motivational" music is whack as hell too.
I am surprised that we haven't had complaints about some of the music being played. I love it--GNR and The Clash (London Calling.)
At my store (not sure how widespread the music is), a different playlist starts for night crew I think around 10pm, and we don't close until 12. So late shoppers will hear songs like Drowning Pool's "Sinner." They used to play "Bodies" by them as well (which is about the mosh pit, by the way, not killing). I don't mind, because I like metal, but still. That's legitimate growling/screaming metal blaring in a grocery store.
Another ironic song I used to hear was Reel Big Fish's "Sell Out".
I am surprised that we haven't had complaints about some of the music being played. I love it--GNR and The Clash (London Calling.)
At my store (not sure how widespread the music is), a different playlist starts for night crew I think around 10pm, and we don't close until 12. So late shoppers will hear songs like Drowning Pool's "Sinner." They used to play "Bodies" by them as well (which is about the mosh pit, by the way, not killing). I don't mind, because I like metal, but still. That's legitimate growling/screaming metal blaring in a grocery store.
Another ironic song I used to hear was Reel Big Fish's "Sell Out".
I'd love to know where there is, because WE don't hear any of that! if they played "Bodies", I would totally LMAO!!!
I am surprised that we haven't had complaints about some of the music being played. I love it--GNR and The Clash (London Calling.)
We have. It was in the customer comments. The woman said the music is the worst ever. She said every time she hears it, she can't wait to get out of the store. She questioned if that was good marketing strategy: driving your customers away.
Wr have it. Everyone tunes it out though.plus bow were gearing up to do the stupid Northwest Cherries audio in a few months so combine that with the conditioning chime and its going to get pretty annoying real fast
__________________
How about NO?!?
Anonymous
Date:
RE: Does your store have those annoying top of the hour "conditioning" chimes?
Pure b s for the customers to hear and imagine that the store only appears to be a filthy, chaotic mess. Kroger also falsifies massive piles of documentation to show how beautifully multi-tasking works.
