Kroger seems to be gradually phasing out stores in some areas where Fred Meyer overlaps with other banners, we are seeing this to some extent with QFC in the Portland area as well.
Now, back on topic...Speaking of QFC, have the cluttered aisles appeared there as well?
QFCs have such narrow aisles due to their tiny size, I sure hope the cluttered aisles aren't there. Plus that is supposed to be an upscale format...
When was the last QFC closure in Portland? It seems like they've been pretty stable there lately. There was that one last year where the Fred Meyer is across the highway. Like from 2010-2020 wasn't there only that one closure? I know there were a lot of closures from 2000-2010 including a couple newer stores...
I know this is an old thread, but I was at Fred Meyer tonight. The clutter is the worst I have ever seen it, with these displays down most if not all aisles now, in addition to all of the perimeter areas. More than once, I had to wait for carts going the other direction to pass before I could walk the rest of the aisle, and in one aisle with a pole in the center, you could not walk through the aisle on one side of the pole as it had the displays there.
I would hate to see what kind of madhouse the clutter caused on Black Friday when they had the sock display clutter.
Smiths seem to centralize the clutter around endcaps/end of aisle as opposed to in the middle of the aisles in recent years. I've hit displays multiple times turning a corner not knowing they are there.
They also like to put a lot of displays in the main aisle around the front end.
Ralphs seem to have clutter everywhere in their stores. Ralphs feels more cluttered than a Food 4 Less. Smaller store size issue.
Super S wrote: ↑November 29th, 2023, 7:47 pm
I know this is an old thread, but I was at Fred Meyer tonight. The clutter is the worst I have ever seen it, with these displays down most if not all aisles now, in addition to all of the perimeter areas. More than once, I had to wait for carts going the other direction to pass before I could walk the rest of the aisle, and in one aisle with a pole in the center, you could not walk through the aisle on one side of the pole as it had the displays there. I haven’t been in the Glisan Marketplace store in a few years, but that would be another location that seems problematic for clutter.
I would hate to see what kind of madhouse the clutter caused on Black Friday when they had the sock display clutter.
It’s worse for smaller/odd stores like Coos Bay. When I was there a few weeks ago, had to navigate around all the displays to find things. That store also had an abbreviated remodel / reset since the city did not allow them to fully execute the remodel they had proposed due to flood zone regulations.
This is old school, pre Kroger days merchandising. Old school merchants seem to think that if you clutter the aisles with stuff, people will bump into it and buy it. Target used to have a clean aisle policy but now they are putting stuff down the aisle. Drugstores used to be infamous if cluttering up their corners with floorstands. It's poor merchandising. I absolutely hate walking into Fred Meyer and seeing it look so cluttered up, they now even have open top dump refrigerators placed as you walk in.
Home Depot is the only place I have seen effective use of floor stands. For the most part, those floor stands are special buys and often are a better deal than what you find on the shelf. Of they use it to cross merchandise related items and accessories you really need with your project.
Smiths has had open top dump refrigerators at entry for years. They are typically used for whatever the front page meat special is. I've seen dairy in them before but not too often.
The other problem with the clutter in the middle of the aisles is it slows down the order pickers. With as high of a pickup volume as much of Kroger is doing that is a costly issue. I have noticed when watching the Fred Meyer pickers specifically they will leave their pick cart at the end of an aisle and run down an aisle to grab product. I wonder if the within aisle clutter is part of why.
To add insult to injury, some time in the last month or so my Fred Meyer replaced all of their carts. These carts are bigger and have seats for two small children, and look similar to the regular carts Costco uses.
This creates even less room down the cluttered aisles.
One oddity is that, with the new carts, they are putting these in the door backwards now for some reason, so that when you take a cart you take it from the front. Not sure what the point is with that.
Super S wrote: ↑January 10th, 2024, 5:19 pm
To add insult to injury, some time in the last month or so my Fred Meyer replaced all of their carts. These carts are bigger and have seats for two small children, and look similar to the regular carts Costco uses.
This creates even less room down the cluttered aisles.
One oddity is that, with the new carts, they are putting these in the door backwards now for some reason, so that when you take a cart you take it from the front. Not sure what the point is with that.
I wonder why they switched to those giant carts?
I have not seen those at any other Kroger divisions.
Those giant carts are kind of hard to push in my opinion.
Smiths has nice light plastic carts. Easy. Not as quiet or smooth gliding as the plastic Target carts that seem to be on an annual replacement schedule, but just as lightweight.
