Kroger FAQ

Pros

Less busy than a regular stand alone Starbucks. And you’re not stuck at one station. You switch from register, to bar, to wherever you’re needed.

Cons

You don’t get the perks of working at a stand alone Starbucks like free food or drinks

Pros

Great benefits including health insurance and prescription drug coverage

Cons

Extremely poor treatment of employees, less-than-average pay

Advice to Management

Please try to understand that the hourly workers are humans, not robots.

Pros

They are unionized. Because of this we get cheap insurance. The plans are blue cross blue shield. They offer a pension and a 401K. They offer paid vacations and paid personal days. They offer free college up to an associates degree and tuition reimbursement. They also offer scholarships. Another perk they offer are deals with other companies to provide union members discounts.

Cons

Because they are unionized they take a small amount out of your check every week for union dues. You also have to deal with seniority and other nuances that come with being in a union.

Advice to Management

Take more time to appreciate your employees.

Pros

Inclusion, diversity, great insurance, overtime opportunities, Union perks & protection

Cons

In this position, prepare to sacrifice. Hours can range from 10p (starting) to 7a and all over the place. 10-11 hour days are a norm and days off are not a guarantee only a lucky possibility. You’ll sacrifice your sleep schedule and any routines you previously had established. Your family time will diminish and your energy to be proactive with your family will also be depleted. The job is exhausting. Constant lifting, 13000 steps in a single shift (average), and rapid changes being implemented overnight. They run on a platform of values but that doesn’t reflect in their investment (or lack thereof) in their best employees. The company used to value the personal health of the employees- that is no longer the case. They expect you to run a flawless store with a skeleton crew. Corporate lean initiatives directly reflect in the wellbeing of the store employees and this fact has not changed through the pandemic. Things are more stressful at store level than ever before, corporate has mass profits and spends none of that on employee incentives. A quick for-instance: 8 years ago, dairy department alone had 4 full-time associates tending to it, pushing out sales <$500k/week. Now, we are well-past $800k/week and we have one full-time associate and one part-time associate held to the same standards that 4 full-timers used to meet. This is company/store wide and the pressure resulted in retention deficits, vested employees leaving the company, and management stepping down so they can breathe. It used to be that an employee would be with the company for ten years, and still had to fight a slew of coworkers to climb the ladder because everyone wanted it. The sign-up for leadership openings would be pages long. Now, not a single person signs for these jobs, leaving the stores without adequate leadership entirely. The people in their comfy cubicles received absurd bonuses while our store associates had panic attacks in their cars before their shift. They have heart and health problems because of the stress, and many have become ill/died at the hands of the virus in part because of the company’s lax in safety (the covid+ maskless customer is STILL always right) *eyeroll* bottom line- thank god for the Union or I could only imagine how this company would treat its employees.

Advice to Management

They already know and ignore the needs of the employees. If they cared to listen, I would tell them to come and work beside me on any given day. Feel the pressure, break your back, analyze your to-do vs hours in a day… and look around at the faces of the people making your money for you. You’ll see the toll that your labor cuts have taken on those that once took pride in their positions. You’ll see that if the opportunity presented itself to any one of us, to switch to another company (with union) at a similar pay, we would all take it. God help you if another company opens with better intentions for their employees because the doors here will close.

Pros

Decent pay, good benefits, some other perks like discounts at different local events

Cons

Work/life balance isn't there, cannot hire enough people for the needs. Cut hours horribly because there's supposedly a new system that makes everything faster but we've gotten busier since and now were daily behind and calling our pickup customers to move their orders to the next day. Not too much support other than store managers busting their butts to make up the difference but they have other jobs to get done too AND are short staffed in all other parts of store.

Advice to Management

Stop focusing on "saving money" and start focusing on customers. Its getting ridiculous. Customers aren't happy because we don't have resources, not because the management isn't doing their jobs. We cannot do the job of 14 people.