Kroger Deli Hot Food Programs

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Re: Kroger Deli Hot Food Programs

Post by veteran+ »

klkla wrote: December 7th, 2020, 5:17 pm The problem with Deli & Hot Food Programs in general is that they are just departments within the store and don't have specially trained employees or managers to execute the strategy.

These departments should be autonomous within the store and run as defacto fast food restaurants with defined menus and kitchen organization.

Years ago when I was at Pavilions they were just starting to lease space out to Panda Express. Their execution was really good back then. They shamed the delis and were much busier as a result.
I miss those Pandas.

Most were run so well!!!
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Re: Kroger Deli Hot Food Programs

Post by veteran+ »

Not a fan of Ralph's service counters (all of them).

Poor attitudes, out of stocks, understaffed, poor product knowledge, inflexible with product requests, inconsistent presentation and more!

Unrelated side note:

Pavilions Marketplace, West Hollywood:

The service seafood counter stinks up the entire store. When you first walk in it slams you in the face and stays with you during the entire visit. VERY unpleasant!
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Re: Kroger Deli Hot Food Programs

Post by pseudo3d »

veteran+ wrote: December 8th, 2020, 6:11 am Not a fan of Ralph's service counters (all of them).

Poor attitudes, out of stocks, understaffed, poor product knowledge, inflexible with product requests, inconsistent presentation and more!

Unrelated side note:

Pavilions Marketplace, West Hollywood:

The service seafood counter stinks up the entire store. When you first walk in it slams you in the face and stays with you during the entire visit. VERY unpleasant!
The "old seafood" smell used to be the defining aspect of my local Albertsons (when it still existed), it colored my experiences with the store for years to come.

As for licensed programs, I believe King Soopers uses Chesters instead of the stock Kroger fried chicken...I wonder how that works out.
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Re: Kroger Deli Hot Food Programs

Post by storewanderer »

veteran+ wrote: December 8th, 2020, 6:11 am Not a fan of Ralph's service counters (all of them).

Poor attitudes, out of stocks, understaffed, poor product knowledge, inflexible with product requests, inconsistent presentation and more!

Unrelated side note:

Pavilions Marketplace, West Hollywood:

The service seafood counter stinks up the entire store. When you first walk in it slams you in the face and stays with you during the entire visit. VERY unpleasant!
Have you always found Ralphs service counters to be this way, or is it something that you have observed in recent years?

The reason I ask is because their service counters in NorCal were great (maybe they were just trying harder since they weren't performing well), and after they left NorCal I had similar positive experiences with a limited number of SoCal Stores.

The past perhaps five years I have found Ralphs service counters to be indifferent in interaction, but still presented pretty well and clean looking. Quality is worse every time I go to Ralphs. Kroger's service counters in Fred Meyer and QFC have always been a positive service experience.

Smiths service counters (well, all they have are deli and meat/seafood; bakery is 100% self serve) are pretty good now operationally. Quality has issues- not because it isn't fresh, but due to the lousy quality of various of Kroger's service counter products. However, operationally, they are very clean and helpful. Lunchmeat thickness is always checked before they go past the first slice; they don't attempt any upsells though. Hot food program on fried food offers "cook to order" on slow moving foods like corn dogs, poppers, etc. that they do not leave sitting in the case all day. 15 years ago they were quite terrible- dirty, sloppy, indifferent.
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Re: Kroger Deli Hot Food Programs

Post by veteran+ »

Pre Kroger monster merger mania...................King Soopers and Ralphs service departments RULED!

Little by little they just kept on getting worse and worse.

BTW.................here in Southern Cali I have caught many clerks using the same slicer for cheese and meat (man, did I lose it). I noticed this as a customer and manager.

Mitigating sanitation issues as a manager was a challenge.
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Re: Kroger Deli Hot Food Programs

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

veteran+ wrote: December 10th, 2020, 5:05 am Pre Kroger monster merger mania...................King Soopers and Ralphs service departments RULED!

Little by little they just kept on getting worse and worse.

BTW.................here in Southern Cali I have caught many clerks using the same slicer for cheese and meat (man, did I lose it). I noticed this as a customer and manager.

Mitigating sanitation issues as a manager was a challenge.
I think Ralphs traded ideas with King Soopers back then.
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Re: Kroger Deli Hot Food Programs

Post by storewanderer »

veteran+ wrote: December 10th, 2020, 5:05 am Pre Kroger monster merger mania...................King Soopers and Ralphs service departments RULED!

Little by little they just kept on getting worse and worse.

BTW.................here in Southern Cali I have caught many clerks using the same slicer for cheese and meat (man, did I lose it). I noticed this as a customer and manager.

Mitigating sanitation issues as a manager was a challenge.
In my area the Boar's Head vendors go train the stores that sell Boar's Head on how to handle product (so that is Sprouts, Safeway, and Smiths) and not using the same slicer for meat and cheese and the thickness check on the first slice with customer thing are all Boar's Head training points.

King Soopers service departments still have a number of items that are above typical Kroger-quality. They still have the Chester's Fried Chicken, they still have fried donuts (fried at King Soopers central bakery) as well as a number of other unique to King Soopers bakery items that are well above the average Kroger horrible bakery product.

I don't really understand why Kroger has downgraded Ralphs so badly. At this point is what Ralphs has even much different from F4L?
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Re: Kroger Deli Hot Food Programs

Post by veteran+ »

retailfanmitchell019 wrote: December 10th, 2020, 4:25 pm
veteran+ wrote: December 10th, 2020, 5:05 am Pre Kroger monster merger mania...................King Soopers and Ralphs service departments RULED!

Little by little they just kept on getting worse and worse.

BTW.................here in Southern Cali I have caught many clerks using the same slicer for cheese and meat (man, did I lose it). I noticed this as a customer and manager.

Mitigating sanitation issues as a manager was a challenge.
I think Ralphs traded ideas with King Soopers back then.
Yes they did when they were Stellar and more independent operators.

We used to visit each other and share "best practices".
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Re: Kroger Deli Hot Food Programs

Post by BillyGr »

veteran+ wrote: December 10th, 2020, 5:05 am BTW.................here in Southern Cali I have caught many clerks using the same slicer for cheese and meat (man, did I lose it). I noticed this as a customer and manager.
OK, aside from someone coming in who doesn't eat meat but will eat dairy and not wanting their cheese to possibly have meat juice on it (and that's likely to be a small number of people out of the total customers), what is the issue?

All the items that they are slicing are designed to be eaten as is (that is, already cooked, so no issues that would occur with raw meat), and most likely if someone is ordering meat and cheese they are going to put both together at home anyhow on a sandwich.

Not to mention that most places make platters for events (OK, at least in years not ending in 20) where the meats and cheese are placed touching each other, even if they weren't done on the same slicing machine.
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Re: Kroger Deli Hot Food Programs

Post by rwsandiego »

BillyGr wrote: December 11th, 2020, 8:35 am
veteran+ wrote: December 10th, 2020, 5:05 am BTW.................here in Southern Cali I have caught many clerks using the same slicer for cheese and meat (man, did I lose it). I noticed this as a customer and manager.
OK, aside from someone coming in who doesn't eat meat but will eat dairy and not wanting their cheese to possibly have meat juice on it (and that's likely to be a small number of people out of the total customers), what is the issue?...
My Jewish friends, none of whom keep kosher outside of Passover, will not eat meat and cheese at the same time nor would they buy deli at an establishment that uses the same slicer to slice meat and cheese.
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