Regarding the items you commented on:Bagels wrote: ↑May 27th, 2019, 10:59 am The legacy Ralph’s/VDK bakery products survived until the early 2010s, so relatively recently. Various Kroger divisions maintained their own baked goods, with minimal convergence... IDK if this is still true, but Ralph’s definitely has the legacy Midwestern product - maybe Kroger closed local manufacturing facilities and trucks them in, I really don’t know.
The VDK doughnut change was minimal. These are generic, highly processed mass doughnuts indifferent from Tasty Kakes, Hostess, Entenmann's, etc. The VDK change stood out to me, however, because Kroger’s chocolate doughnuts always had an aftertaste that VDK didn’t have - until the 2010s. It’s that wicked aftertaste that makes me personally avoid them. Not that any of these are my product of choice, but you can typically grab a few boxes for cheap (50c or so) on the clearance racks, and they’re crowd pleasers at work.
At least with Ralph’s, the other changes to the Midwestern product are much more noticeable: lighter cupcakes with whipped frosting , introduction of legacy Kroger cakes like the “sognature” Carmel, Kroger’s longtime carrot cake recipes (horrible IMO), harder cookies, legacy Kroger doughnuts and muffins, etc. And All of the legacy premium Ralph’s cakes have been discontinued, replaced with frozen ones made by Kroger (and premium vendors like Cheesecake Factory).
lighter cupcakes with whipped frosting Lousy thaw and sell product from Smiths frozen plant I suspect, same trash Smiths sold pre-Kroger,
introduction of legacy Kroger cakes like the “sognature” Carmel Oddly that cake hasn't been seen at Smiths much so I guess it must be from a Kroger plant, Kroger’s longtime carrot cake recipes (horrible IMO)That carrot cake is actually a Rich brand carrot cake and it is the same stock carrot cake that many retailers sell, harder cookies Same garbage cookies Smiths sold in the 90's made by Smiths frozen dough plant, cannot believe those became the standard cookie for Kroger; if you can find them the PS Cookies are much better, also Frys has some better cookies as well in small size packs,
legacy Kroger doughnuts Not sure where the donuts come from but they're terribleand muffins Another winning product from Smiths frozen dough plant and despite efforts to "glaze" the muffins or otherwise doctor them up, they are still terrible; at Fred Meyer they have some different muffins in big 12 packs made at the FM Bakery plant, etc
King Soopers has managed to keep a good amount of its own bakery product. They (and Harris Teeter) are also the only two Kroger divisions to actually sell fried donuts in their bakery (not the bakeoff/frozen stuff). However I think King Soopers donuts may not be fried in each store but rather fried at the central King Soopers bakery plant then brought to the stores each morning. I'm not sure how the rural stores handle that but that seems to be what happens in Denver.
Back when Ralphs was in NorCal it had a pretty good bakery, I thought. But they never got much traction on bakery. Many of the items they offered, the same supplier items are now at Sprouts. Even back then in the 00's Smiths bakery was terrible quality. It hasn't changed much since a lot of Smiths frozen bakery stuff has actually become Kroger standard. Some of the PS items they have added today (cookies, small pies, large pies, frozen cream pies) are very good though.
It appears the classic King Soopers "Sooperb" white bread has gotten the ax in the past few years as well. Too bad.
Also Fred Meyer has continued to offer this product, which has a "story" on the package; it was a bread developed by Fred Meyer himself:
https://www.kroger.com/p/vita-bee-white ... 1111002206#