I've worked at Kroger as a bagger for almost a year. Every single weekend, every single holiday, and on days that I clearly stated I'm unavalible to work. I've never seen my employee discount (I've talked to several people about it, and finally decided to just shop at Wal-Mart), only got one shirt (which I never had a chance to wash), did not get paid overtime for working Thanksgiving or Christmas Eve, and after 10 months I only make $5.90 an hour. After taxes and union dues, I make less than $5.00 an hour.
We recently had a meeting. For every customer we have to say something like "How are you", "Do you have anything in your cart we can help you with", "Is plastic ok?", then "Thank you, have a nice day." We are not allowed to drink Gatorade while we're working, only water (did I mention it's been 98 degrees outside, and we have to bring in carts. Oh yes, and I only own one shirt, so I never have a chance to wash it). Finally, we are not allowed to have "personal conversations" while we're working, and we're not allowed to listen to our MP3 players while we're on carts.
I remember once somebody **** on the mens' room floor, and I had to clean it up. I asked how, and was told to get a pair of gloves and a lot of paper towels and scoop it up. I did that, washed my hands, and got back to to my normal job of handling people's food.
I called in sick once. The lady answering the phone told me to call back in an hour. I did, and the manager tried to talk me into coming to work and handle other people's food while I was sick (Isn't that a health code violation?). Then he told me to call back halfway through my shift to see if I could work then. Needless to say, I didn't get much rest that day, and wasn't feeling any better the next.
At one point they gave us "new" employee handbooks (which is good, because I never got the "old" one) with a page on the back to sign and give to the manager. The lady working the front desk told us to sign it, and read it when we got home. I refused, and read the thing cover-to-cover, while on the clock of course, before signing it. Here are a coupple useful tidbits:
Kroger is allowed to search your car whenever they feel like.
Cashiers are not allowed to have money or coupons with them.
I've had it with these people, and I'm putting in my two weeks notice on Friday.
1. Did they not tell you when you were hired you would be expected to work weekends and holidays?
2. Are you buying the Kroger brands and using your Kroger card to pay?
3. Do you qualify for holiday pay; have you worked long enough to receive that benefit?
4. Did they promise you would make more than $5.90 an hour when applied for the job?
5. A meeting? Or was it a training session? A lot of people do not know how to respond to the public and need training.
6. One shirt? Don’t they have some that you could purchase?
7. Personal conversations while working with the public is rude and leads to giving poor service to the customer. Would you want to be treated that way if you were the customer?
8. Are they paying you to have fun listening to music or are they paying you to act professional and get the job done?
9. Are you the only one to ever clean up after a slob of a customer, isn’t that everyone’s job?
10. In all the years I have worked for Kroger I have never seen them search a car unless they saw the person put stolen merchandise in it, how about you?
11. What, you have a problem with them trying to cut down on some of the stealing that goes on by the cashiers by not allowing money and coupons at the registers? And if they are working why do they need money or coupons at the register?
If all these things bother you so much I suggest you find your next job doing anything but retail because it is all pretty standard stuff!
1. Some weekends and holidays are fine. EVERY weekend and EVERY holiday is not fine.
2. Yes, I am using my card, and buying Kroger brand.
3. I've worked long enough to pay union dues, I should get holiday pay IMHO.
4. No. But most of the jobs I'm looking at start at $6.00.
5. It was a meeting, for all baggers and cashiers. They're changing things so they can compete with Wal-Mart. (Quite a few people are quitting, and trying to get jobs there)
6. I'm not paying for a new shirt when I plan on quitting! If they don't want me wearing a sweaty shirt that hasn't been washed in months, they'd give me a few for free.
7. You're telling me you never talk to your co-workers?
8. I'll get the job done either way. If they wan't me to suffer so I can "look professional" they need to pay me more.
9. It was the employee restroom. My main complaint was not having the proper equipment/knowledge to handle human waste.
10. I'm a privacy fanatic. I know they'll never search my car, but the fact that they can still upsets me.
Don't worry, I don't plan on doing retail for my next job.
1. Seniority is the way that one works are you the new kid or have you been there longer than anyone else, and sometimes even that is not enough.
2. Then your receipt should show a senior discount for those items, if it does not I would talk to management about it.
3. Our opinion does not count, company policy does, just because we pay union dues does not qualify us for all the benefits some of them don’t kick in until we have been there for a year.
4. For 10 cents more an hour what kind of benefits do they offer, do they help pay for your medical insurance? Do you get workman’s comp if you become ill and have to take a sick leave? Are they better or worse than what Kroger offers?
5. We are going through the remodeling thing right now and getting the same kind of hassle, heads up, offer assistance, be helpful, say thank you all that standard stuff I have been hearing about once a year ever since I started working for them.
6. They don’t give those shirts away, the sell them to us at cost, and I would not buy one either if I was getting ready to quit but would not expect them to give me one either.
7. I am not saying we never have a personal conversation but what we don’t do is let it interfere with getting our work done in a timely fashion or at a customer’s expense. As a customer, I do not appreciate it when I am trying to hand money to the checker and she/he does not take it because she/he is so deeply in conversation with a couple of sackers that I might as well be on another planet! That is just plane rude.
8. Bottom line, when you accept a job for how ever much or little pay, you agree to play by their rules while on the clock.
9. Agree, you should have been given proper information and tools to get the job done.
10. I hear you on that one, I don’t like giving my finger print to cash a check at the bank.
Glad to hear it, not everyone is cut out to work retail and some go from job to job and aren’t ever happy because they don’t realize that the problem is the line of work and not the company they are working for. Good Luck!!!
Just a bit childish don't you think? ... Oh well, you will go from job ot job and never make much over minimum wage with an aditude like yours! I'll be sure to wave as I pass by your house on poverty row next time I am on your side of town.
I know this is a old post but oh well, I know that kroger is a prick of a store,and i know the rules seem retarded, but i have to agree with management and whats printed on our low wage paychecks. but i dont care i pay 6.40 each week for some union that doesnt get good merits or whatever. moreless im paying them to keep my job. i know how it is to be couresty clerk, i started at 5.15/hr need moved to cashier and now im at 5.95 as a cashier and produce clerk. i ve already had my paid vacation and im taking my personal days as we speak. so far ive made over 400 dollars in overtime, and im not complaining,being i get 6days sometimes being our produce department is shorthanded. so my i get time and half on my 6th day and top that off im a junior in school so its all good. Ive been at kroger bout 18 months now, and next month i get my medical, even though its very ****ty, but its better then not having any, ya know. I wanted to leave kroger, but the more i thought bout it,there arent many places in the town i live at in west virginia that offer insurance and stuff at part time.
And for a farming county with 2 krogers and 1 in the next county over we do better then them being we get slammed from people virginia, west virginia, (3 or 4 counties) we are like number 3 or 4 in our zone, we do better then some towns that have 2 or 3 krogers. the veterans at our store are so good at what they do, being there from old stores in this county that closed there doors. we are good we are getting remodeled and have 3 f***ing managers. So I usually get called in because we get slammed, hell we are slammed between 1030pm and 1 am, sometimes worse then that when the state fair is going on. and what else is sad we also have a deputy sheriff hired on for security.
Not the poster who you are replying to, but I got a question. Why do Union Members, especially the oldtimers sell out part timers and future hires in contracts? Don't sound like a Union to me. Someday their grandkid or possibly own child might end up working for them, why do they sell out those who will follow them after they quit or retire?
f kroger. in my opinion, the managers are selfish, and the union steward we had was a prick. i learned pretty quick that if one work there less than, say, 10 years, the union doesn't do crap for you. its great that they try to get new contracts to benefit employees, but we younger employees have to basically fiight the union for them to throw benefits and improvements for us. ive worked there 4 years,a nd i have met my wage cap. being a patr time employee with no chance of making full time anywhere soon, the union pretty much dismisses the minority of the younger employees ideas. mi not planning on working there much longer
lol this person "anonymous" who is praising the holy lords of krogers, has been brain washed by them. I work at krogers now and everytime I walk in I just look at the other workers and see one thing: smiling robots. you ****heads need to grow some nuts, you deserve respect from your managers they shouldn't treat you like trash and expect you to take it. you know why they do it? because you let them. I for one do not take any of their bull****, I pay my union dues and I exercise my rights. America is about freedom, if I want to work in a "nazi death camp" then I'm pretty sure I could find a place on this earth that resembles it pretty closely. I do not tolerate being talked down to and I am not afraid to speak my mind. The sooner you figure out how to do the same the faster you can become a human being again. And for the people who choose krogers as a "career", lol you ****ing people need to go to college and quit doing this ****ty ass job. Job = J-O-B = Just Over Broke.
improve your quality of life and your families, not the managers and ceo's of this fascist corporation.
one manager tried to tell me that they pay my paycheck......thats funny cuz last time I checked it says specifically "a satisfied customer made this check possible" I told him exactly that and he didn't have a ****ing thing to say.
Stand up for yourself, quit being a little bitch.
Wherever you go for a job if you act like **** you get treated like it, if you grow a pair and exercise your rights as an American and as a human ****ing being you get treated like it.
Just a bit childish don't you think? ... Oh well, you will go from job ot job and never make much over minimum wage with an aditude like yours! I'll be sure to wave as I pass by your house on poverty row next time I am on your side of town.
with that kind of "aditude" and sense of grammar and spelling, lol, you seem like a perfect candidate for a manager spot at nazi kroger's. Or are you already a manager? hahaha manager's are such douchebag's, they don't know a ****ing thing and get promoted based on who's D I C K they suck.
I know this is a old post but oh well, I know that kroger is a prick of a store,and i know the rules seem retarded, but i have to agree with management and whats printed on our low wage paychecks. but i dont care i pay 6.40 each week for some union that doesnt get good merits or whatever. moreless im paying them to keep my job. i know how it is to be couresty clerk, i started at 5.15/hr need moved to cashier and now im at 5.95 as a cashier and produce clerk. i ve already had my paid vacation and im taking my personal days as we speak. so far ive made over 400 dollars in overtime, and im not complaining,being i get 6days sometimes being our produce department is shorthanded. so my i get time and half on my 6th day and top that off im a junior in school so its all good. Ive been at kroger bout 18 months now, and next month i get my medical, even though its very ****ty, but its better then not having any, ya know. I wanted to leave kroger, but the more i thought bout it,there arent many places in the town i live at in west virginia that offer insurance and stuff at part time.
And for a farming county with 2 krogers and 1 in the next county over we do better then them being we get slammed from people virginia, west virginia, (3 or 4 counties) we are like number 3 or 4 in our zone, we do better then some towns that have 2 or 3 krogers. the veterans at our store are so good at what they do, being there from old stores in this county that closed there doors. we are good we are getting remodeled and have 3 f***ing managers. So I usually get called in because we get slammed, hell we are slammed between 1030pm and 1 am, sometimes worse then that when the state fair is going on. and what else is sad we also have a deputy sheriff hired on for security.
EMPLOYEE FROM MID ATLANTIC REGION KROGER #765
and that's a krogerer for life right there ladies and gentleman....it's just so sad when people lose all hope and give up on what dreams and aspirations they had at one time, and for what? a ****ty paycheck and have to put up with dickheads with bad attitudes? I clearly think NO!!! have some self respect dude, follow your dreams.....
I'll be sure to wave as I pass by your house on poverty row next time I am on your side of town.
I'll be sure to wave as I pass by your house on poverty row next time I am on your side of town.
