Kroger Changes Strategy

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rwsandiego
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Re: Kroger Changes Strategy

Post by rwsandiego »

arizonaguy wrote: June 7th, 2018, 7:51 am
rwsandiego wrote: June 6th, 2018, 10:25 pm
pseudo3d wrote: June 6th, 2018, 8:48 pm I'm not sure if this universal within the Krogerverse, but for the last month or so, they've had "Say Hello to Lower Prices" outside on the doors (black on yellow, where I have seen that before...?) but today I noticed they had (in the main checkouts) new yellow plastic bags (instead of the regular brown ones), and they're INCREDIBLY flimsy, like they would burst through a bag of just 12 ounces of ground coffee and half a dozen Slim Jims.
Fry's had them too. Haven't been there in a couple of weeks, so I can't say what they have now. Like @storewanderer, I am not a fan of the "low prices" campaign. For starters, I wouldn't consider Fry's or Ralphs prices to be "low." In fact, I would avoid the self-checkout at Ralphs because at their prices they were going to scan it, process the payment, and put it in a bag for me.
In Arizona Fry's pricing tends to be lower than Albertsons/Safeway and Bashas' so that's how they can market their "low prices" campaign. However, Walmart and Winco still beat them on pricing.

I also don't like the yellow bags (and, as of Monday, they were still in use).

For the last few years I did a good bit of my grocery shopping at Fry's (basically anything more than a quick trip which I would do at SuperTarget or Safeway). However, I've started going to Walmart and Winco more often than the past (and my wife and I were pretty impressed with the prepared foods section that Winco has now).
I'm not as price-sensitive as others. For me, convenience, quality, and cleanliness are what draws me to a store. While the closest Fry's is certainly clean and super-huge, I can buy almost 100% of my grocery list at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, which are located across the street and do not have the parking issues like Fry's does. If I don't feel like traveling to WFM/TJ's, I certainly don't feel like making the same trek to Fry's. Instead, I'll shop at my local Safeway, which is just a mile away from my apartment on McDowell between 3rd and 7th streets. Despite being an older store with a mixed clientele, it is actually a decent store that suits me just fine. However, when the new Fry's opens at 1st street and Washington I will probably start shopping there, as it is on my way home from work and is closer to where I live (border of Downtown Phoenix and the Evans-Churchill neighborhood).
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Re: Kroger Changes Strategy

Post by Super S »

SamSpade wrote: June 7th, 2018, 7:47 am No signs of this in the Portland market.
Fred Meyer TV ads are emphasizing summer holidays and mentioned ad specials are 100% food.

Normal bags (in Portland city paper is required), no indication of price reduction when I was in a store on Monday.

QFC seems to be "normal" as well.

Must be interesting to live in a competitive grocery market... The NW has lots of choices but mostly on the higher end.
No yellow bags in Longview either. Honestly I don't care what color bags are as long as they do their job. The yellow made me think though about Subway recently going to yellow drink lids which does look weird to me.

In all honesty I request paper whenever possible as I find they do not slide around in the trunk like plastic bags tend to do.
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Re: Kroger Changes Strategy

Post by arizonaguy »

Kroger's online sales are up 66% year-over-year from last year.

Wall Street seems to be loving Kroger's strategy change: http://money.cnn.com/2018/06/21/investi ... index.html
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Re: Kroger Changes Strategy

Post by rwsandiego »

Super S wrote: June 8th, 2018, 7:20 am...Honestly I don't care what color bags are as long as they do their job...
Aw, c'mon. You're taking all the fun out of it.

But seriously, I noticed the yellow bags were at the back of the stack at the self-checkout the other day.
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Re: Kroger Changes Strategy

Post by CalItalian »

arizonaguy wrote: June 22nd, 2018, 11:30 am Kroger's online sales are up 66% year-over-year from last year.

Wall Street seems to be loving Kroger's strategy change: http://money.cnn.com/2018/06/21/investi ... index.html
Up 66% from nothing is nothing. It's easy to see, in store, there is very little in the way of online sales with the lockers for online sales they have recently been installed in many Ralphs locations. Or just watch or talk with those that fill orders in store.
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Re: Kroger Changes Strategy

Post by storewanderer »

CalItalian wrote: June 23rd, 2018, 12:36 pm
arizonaguy wrote: June 22nd, 2018, 11:30 am Kroger's online sales are up 66% year-over-year from last year.

Wall Street seems to be loving Kroger's strategy change: http://money.cnn.com/2018/06/21/investi ... index.html
Up 66% from nothing is nothing. It's easy to see, in store, there is very little in the way of online sales with the lockers for online sales they have recently been installed in many Ralphs locations. Or just watch or talk with those that fill orders in store.
Kroger posted good financial results and all indicators being presented to the investment community show the Restock Kroger initiative is working. As a shopper, I am just not very happy with them. I am shopping them less as I am finding quality slipping, store staffing levels slipping, and pricing increase on private labels (seems to be going down on some name brand items though). They seem to be running fewer ad specials as well, but those they are running are much deeper discount than before. Thanks to Kroger's new strategy, I am buying more and more at the competition (cherry picking various stores) and spending noticeably less on groceries than when I gave Kroger most of my shopping back when I felt they had fair pricing; I knew they weren't always the best deal, but not a blatant ripoff either. Their prices are still "fair" but it is getting closer to "blatant ripoff" than it was before on everyday prices. We will just see where they are in a year or two. I believe they still have time to reverse course.

I notice the Clicklist at the Smiths I shop at a little busier (only store in the region that has it, odd they can only roll out one store in a seven month period). I never used to see any customers there. Now I see a car there some evenings when I stop at the store with an active pick up taking place. The pick up seems to take about 10 minutes between reviewing the invoice and doing the loading... add that to the time it takes the picker in store, and not real sure how they come out on the $4.95 fee. Raleys eCart (much higher prices there than Smiths so I suspect that helps pay for this, plus Raleys has baggers serve as pickers in between other duties) in certain locations seems busier, but in other locations it gets literally NO use (they offer it at all locations in Nevada except the former Scolaris).
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Re: Kroger Changes Strategy

Post by SamSpade »

Kroger is seeing some C-Suite changes again:
This time in technology. https://www.winsightgrocerybusiness.com ... ness-ranks

Chris Hjelm, EVP and Chief Information Officer, is retiring.
Yael Cosset, Kroger's chief digital officer, will take on Hjelm's role effective in May. He will retain his duties with digital.
Additionally, Kroger has expanded the role of its current CEO of 84.51 to create a new position: SVP of alternative business.
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Re: Kroger Changes Strategy

Post by storewanderer »

Not surprising at all to see this, looking at their various "technology" initiatives. Even that QueVision which seemed really good when it came out, seems to have fallen by the wayside as the stores don't have enough staffing to execute it properly anymore. Or in some cases not even enough physical checkstands to execute it properly (like the 70k square foot Sparks Smiths that now has only 5 checkstands and over a dozen self checkouts). Or the stores that still do try to execute it by pulling people from grocery floor or produce floor to run a checkstand then don't get their stocking tasks done so departments are not being replenished during peak shopping times and have multiple abandoned stock projects going on (since the person who is supposed to execute restocking is at checkout). Last night I stopped at Smiths and they had no limes. How does a store run out of limes?

You can have all the technology you want but if you don't have people, then you have nothing and you are dead in the water. And no matter how much you try to get technology to replace people, it is a slow process. The grocery business is a people business.

It will be interesting to see what else unfolds.
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Re: Kroger Changes Strategy

Post by klkla »

storewanderer wrote: February 2nd, 2019, 11:28 amEven that QueVision which seemed really good when it came out, seems to have fallen by the wayside as the stores don't have enough staffing to execute it properly anymore
This is my biggest problem with Ralphs. The Ralphs at 3rd & Vermont is on my way home from work and I was doing the majority of my shopping there because I could get in and out quick, but not anymore. I've probably been in there two or three times in the last six months as a result.
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Re: Kroger Changes Strategy

Post by BillyGr »

storewanderer wrote: February 2nd, 2019, 11:28 am Last night I stopped at Smiths and they had no limes. How does a store run out of limes?
They forgot there was a big televised sporting event today that everyone was making snacks for that use lime or lime juice? ;)
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