The whole attitude of the company is bad. Kroger values each customer so much that they will let them get away with anything. Want to return your 2 year old toaster with no receipt? No problem. Want your tomatoes free because the first one you picked up was bad? No problem. Want a sale price for a different variety of an item because you couldn't read the sign? No problem. This means that we have quite a few stuck up customers. Customers throw a fit any time they don't get exactly what they want, even if you are following company policy and even if you can show them the policy. What is worse, if they ask for a manager, the manager will come down and in front of you, apologize that the employee doesn't understand the policy, give them what they want, and promise that they will train the employee.
The pay is also bad. Most people will start around minimum wage and get a raise of about 20 cents a year.
The way Kroger works promotes being lazy. You know that bagger who has been here for 3 years? Yeah, the guy that refuses to push carts in, puts milk on top of eggs, makes a bigger mess every time he tries to clean up a mess, and who we need to hide every time corporate decides to come by (which happens around once a month and would make you think the president is here) because he always causes problems? Well he gets paid more than me, who has about 10x more responsibilities than him and gets chewed out because when I was supervising, the lines were too long (even though we were using every single register, had more baggers than registers, and had just about the entire store at the front.
The people that Kroger hires are amazing, and not in a good way. I feel more like a baby sitter than a supervisor. I can't believe I've had to say things like "don't ask a woman if she is pregnant", "don't pick your nose and then grab someone's bananas", "you can't put bleach in the same bag as meat", or "you can't pet service dogs when they are working" to adults. These people also never seem to get fired. One kid has been written up 50 times in the past few months and is still here.
Algorithms run Kroger. How many hours should we schedule? Check the computer (hint: not enough). How many registers should we have open? Check the computer. How well did we do in serving customers? Check the computer. How well did we do at keeping things in stock? Check the computer. It's insulting that they don't think that we can make basic decisions. All of these metrics also work independently of each other, so if you follow one, you are likely going to get dinged in another. No one in the world can manage to keep lines short while still providing an experience that is "highly satisfactory" while keeping enough lanes open (by calling people who stock stuff up) while keeping stuff in stock while using a very low number of employees. Kroger is probably an economists dream, but in practice it doesn't work.
