OK, since we're back to this, I guess I can answer them, but I gotta tell you...I do have a personal dislike for Kroger. That's not going to prevent me from arguing with facts, but I feel I should be acknowledging my bias. I also worked at Kroger once and briefly, though that doesn't really factor in to why I dislike it. It's a bunch of little things, mostly, and because of forum rules here, I won't get into all of them.storewanderer wrote:I don't think Kroger is very centralized at all from a merchandising perspective. Up until about 10 years ago they still had different interior decor at every division and up until about 5 or so years ago they still had different print ad formats in every division. Some divisions have cashier unload checkout (QFC, King Soopers) most have customer unload. Some have registers that are touch screen some have older style keyboards. Employee uniforms vary by division too. They still don't even have the same shelf tags in every division and there are various "slogans" being used depending on the division. Also every division has a different bakery/deli/meat/produce program (in some cases different locations in the same city in the same division are on entirely different programs...). They are really quite inconsistent on their merchandising even between stores located in the same division let alone stores in different divisions. Some of the Kroger divisions tend to be rather similar/boring/sterile (divisions like Dillons and Kroger Central come to mind) on the whole but some of the divisions have some really good, really nice stores. Fred Meyer, Ralphs, Frys, and QFC are the ones who I think have the nicest stores. But those divisions also have some lousy stores.
Not counting the Fred Meyer division, is that really different? The price tags when I worked there are all similar to what I see when searching "Kroger price tags" (even the new-style electronic ones), uniforms are not done by division but rather by department, store décor wasn't nearly as de-centralized as you describe (all of the divisions had Greenhouse, though that had a few changes), the "slogans" are all similar (same "Low Prices" signage), and as for customer/cashier unloading (I assume you mean taking things out to one's car) isn't that tend to be a cultural thing? It's not big where I live, and tipping isn't expected there, but from what I've heard, it's very different elsewhere.
Look...I realize that the Safeway brands aren't "all that", and rolling that out to their own stores may have been a mistake. I like some of the old Albertsons/SuperValu brands, but they couldn't be kept. I don't live close enough to Albertsons or Safeway to really observe local merchandising, and my last trip to an Albertsons was unfortunately a short one.Kroger operates its divisions NOTHING like Albertsons. Don't fool yourself. Albertsons is very centralized and if anything has become more centralized since the involvement with Safeway came into play. Albertsons is trying to decentralize some of the merchandising decisions but so far I have not seen any changes other than a number of sports team sponsorships. Same old "local" term being thrown around on products grown hundreds of miles away or even in Mexico. Pushing O Organics and Eating Right lines that are total dogs and even failed once before in the AZ Albertsons LLC Stores. From the perspective of Safeway people it is just a change in who is the boss, but it is still a very "top down" mentality just like Safeway always was. The only positive is Albertsons has a lot of room to improve itself because overall they are a terrible operator. Sure they have some bright spots like the Albertsons LLC Stores and United Texas but other than that they have major issues; major mAjOr MAJOR price issues, lower volume stores than most competitors, and stores that need capital.
The fleet Albertsons runs is damaged goods, and some divisions are obviously in worse shape than others (reading about the differences between the Southwest division to the NorCal division is jarring), but they were able to stop the bleeding in others (ACME was going off the rails), and those stores are showing signs of improvement.
Maybe in the old Albertsons and Safeway, but I'm not sure now. I know that Safeway had a number of weird things that the "backroom" at Pleasanton did that was more antagonistic to the store managers and didn't help customers, which Albertsons got rid of. But Kroger is also Kroger, and I'm dubious of the "dictate down/try it/see if it works" method, as it just doesn't sound like the Kroger I know. Why are all the Kroger stores unionized, even in parts of the States that aren't as receptive to unions? Why do all the Kroger stores (not counting acquired chains) have shoppers cards? (On that same note, why is MyMixx only in ACME and Shaw's?)The main difference is Kroger will dictate ideas down to its divisions and the divisions will try the ideas. If the ideas don't work, the divisions will not continue with the ideas or they will tinker with the ideas so they work for their specific market area. With Safeway or Albertsons, when an idea comes down from corporate to the divisions, it has to be tried and pushback is simply not allowed. Even feedback as simple as "need more labor to properly execute" or "price is too high" are things that Albertsons or Safeway corporate, historically, will not listen to. Maybe the new Albertsons will change this but so far I don't think it has really gone too well since the Safeway merger. I know back in the early days of Albertsons LLC there were a number of quick swift changes... but I am afraid they are too big and too centralized again.