We have a grocery store nearby that is family owned . The prices are a few cents higher than the competition but it is a joy to shop there . No self checkouts . If there is more than three people in line then somebody comes over and opens another register . A lot of the help are High School kids and they are actually polite and helpful . Fantastic bakery , hot food bar , and a meat department with a couple of real butchers . I'm telling you this place is a real gem .

I have 2 easy options for grocery shopping -- big and fairly new King Soopers (Kroger) and Safeway stores, maybe 1/2 mile from my house. At least 90% of the time, I'm using King Soopers.
- KS almost always has lower prices.
- KS has fresher produce.
- KS has 3 different self-checkout lanes, each with 6 checkout stations. Depending on the time of day, 6 to 18 self check stations are open. And yes, I use self-checkout most of the time.
- Safeway has only one 6-station self check lane.
- KS keeps more human-powered check lanes open than Safeway.

Kroger has my business.

I've been going to Fry's (Krogers) for around 18 years. Like it a lot obviously.

And I prefer self checkout, it's much faster but I'll take a cashier if I'm feeling lazy.

I usually prefer self-checkout. There's always some middle-aged woman in the regular checkout lanes, and she and the woman manning (womaning?) the checkout ALWAYS seem to get into a gab session about weather, kids, fashion, whatever.

Out here we have Smiths (still K-Roger). I easily prefer going there over Wally World. Both of them are swinging towards more self checkouts, but that's the way the world is heading.

We used to shop at ALDIs almost exclusively even though it is approximately 20 miles either way to the nearest, we’ve found the prices have increased tremendously and selection is terrible. It’s no longer worth the time and drive. We have a Krogers, Walmart and a small local grocery, the Mrs has been in management with Walmart for over 30 yrs, different positions, different territories, etc and she won’t go into our Walmart unless it’s an emergency lol. We’ve decided on our local grocery, no self checkouts and up to 6 cashiers during our busy summer months, it costs more but it’s just us so we don’t count pennys like we once did. Lot to be said for the local feel

Harris Teeter (Georgia) is an example of a very good store totally ruined by a Kroger's take over.

Growing up in Columbus, OH we always shopped at Kroger or Big Bear.

I also worked at Krogers in High School and College for spending money.

After leaving Columbus, we moved to Richmond right after 9-11. There were Krogers all over the area and I loved it.

Fast forward to when we moved to Durham NC. There were a few Krogers nearby and I was happy. Then for some reason they closed the Krogers and replaced them with Harris Teeter.

Now that is one store I despise.
Even though it is owned by Krogers, I think it is over priced and their products suck.

It wasn't until I spent the summer of 2021 in Indianapolis that I realized how much I missed Krogers.

After years of shopping there, I fired Kroger a while back and am glad I did, because I found out recently they're a bunch of woke assholes as a company.

quote:

the Krogers and replaced them with Harris Teeter.

Harris Teeter charges admission to get in their stores.

I have Giant, Food Lion, Aldi, and Lottes Plaza all close by and the weekly sales lets me save a lot of money. Walmart and LIDL are another mile.

quote:

Originally posted by 41:

quote:

the Krogers and replaced them with Harris Teeter.

Harris Teeter charges admission to get in their stores.

That was AFTER the Kroger asshat takeover. Quality of protein and produce nosedived as well.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:

quote:

Originally posted by Schmelby:
I'll try Aldis.

Be prepared to bag your own stuff there too. (And provide your own bags.)

But at the least the checkouts are all still manned, and best of all, Aldi prides itself in super-speedy checkouts. It's one of the ways that Aldi cuts personnel cost without resorting to self checkouts... They specifically train their checkout clerks to be extra fast, and continually hold them to a speed standard, so that they can still handle a larger volume of checkouts with fewer clerks and lines.

They even print their house brand boxes with large barcodes on each facet to facilitate this, instead of just one barcode on one facet like usual, so that it doesn't matter which way the clerk grabs the items and rapidly scans it through. Any of the facets of the box will still register, since they all have a barcode. So no wasted seconds trying to hunt around to find which side of the box has the barcode.

I do about 2/3 of my grocery shopping at Aldi, supplemented by a trip every month or so to a larger grocery superstore. Aldi is great for basic groceries, and often has interesting one-off stuff you aren't likely to find elsewhere, like fancy cheeses and oddball European items. But their focus is the house brand grocery staples that makes up about 80% of their store, so it won't have as wide of a selection as a larger grocery store and it's unlikely to have specific brand name items or less common types of grocery items. Their non-chicken meat and some of their produce can also be hit or miss.

+1 for Aldi's ,

there steaks and pork are good,
no issues with any of the meat I have tried, burgers, chicken etc,

the canned corn tastes like field corn, as in not sweet, but the rest of the canned veg that I have tried are good,

lunchmeats,,,,be careful, some are low end heavily processed (emulsified it seems) but the usually have some better deli style presliced as well,

I do a good 2\3's of our shopping there,

be prepared to not get everything on your list, the are out of stuff sometimes,

produce depends on the store, some are awesome, some not so much,


I have not set foot in a Kroger since I left them in 2015, not heard a damn thing good about them from any of my former peers ( I was a Store Managaer)

Around here HEB is crowded in every aisle and at checkout. They have over a dozen real checkout lanes (i.e. cashier) and 4 self-checkout. Checkout goes fast because typically managers can be seen insuring things are moving along, plenty of checkouts open, and most checkout lanes have a bagger.

Kroger isn't much further and is even larger. The aisles are a ghost town, and lull you into the false belief that you'll get in and out quickly. Then, you get to checkout and everything comes to a screeching standstill. There are more self-checkouts open than real checkouts. They don't have conveyor belts to offload your cart so the few cashiers unload your cart and scan. Good chance there isn't a bagger either so cashier bags.

HEB > Kroger. Their days are numbered in Houston just like Randall's.

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:
I've been going to Fry's (Krogers) for around 18 years. Like it a lot obviously.

And I prefer self checkout, it's much faster but I'll take a cashier if I'm feeling lazy.

I like Krogers and have been using it for 90% of my groceries for years and one reason is it was always well run with plenty of full service lines open. I use self serve when I have a smaller quantity but when I have a large buggy, especially with a lot of produce that doesn't scan, alcohol that needs age verified, it's more efficient with a cashier and bagger. I noticed last year there were suddenly long lines at full service with only 2 open and it hasn't improved.
I contacted Kroger https://www.kroger.com/hc/help/contact-us to briefly live chat to express my dissatisfaction and that I will still shop there for some items but will be changing most of my grocery shopping to Aldi and Price Cutter.

No Krogers here. I always liked Handy Andy and HEB when I lived in Texas. Delchamps had a nice clean store. Sold out to Jitney Jungle and it became a dirty store with high prices. Jewel Osco is pretty good. Sadly we are stuck with Walmart. There are smaller family chains but they require a drive.

quote:

Originally posted by ridewv:

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:
I've been going to Fry's (Krogers) for around 18 years. Like it a lot obviously.

And I prefer self checkout, it's much faster but I'll take a cashier if I'm feeling lazy.

I like Krogers and have been using it for 90% of my groceries for years and one reason is it was always well run with plenty of full service lines open. I use self serve when I have a smaller quantity but when I have a large buggy, especially with a lot of produce that doesn't scan, alcohol that needs age verified, it's more efficient with a cashier and bagger. I noticed last year there were suddenly long lines at full service with only 2 open and it hasn't improved.
I contacted Kroger https://www.kroger.com/hc/help/contact-us to briefly live chat to express my dissatisfaction and that I will still shop there for some items but will be changing most of my grocery shopping to Aldi and Price Cutter.

you are in MAMA, which is were I worked,

Mid Atlantic Marketing Area, they used to be based in Roanoke for the division office, which I was told now is in RVA,

talking to a few of my former peers, it seems that they (kroger) has been recruiting from WalMart, several higher ups in this division jumped ship from Walmart, and have hired management away from walmart as well,

that does not bode well for the company,

Local Kroger here has “won” an award from the local newspaper and radio station several times over for the parking lot you are most likely to get into a crash. Tight spaces better suited for econobox cars where many people drive trucks, we are in a semi rural area.

Add that to a dirty crowded eighteen year old store, perishable products on the shelves either close to pull or over pull dates. The only “renovations” that store ever gets is the “let’s move everything in the store around so people will have to spend more time looking for it” ilk.

Public restrooms smell like the local sale barn. Customer Service is usually unstaffed. Two things I can say is that their self check lanes always work unlike the local Meijer, over there the average is twenty percent of the terminals are broken down at any given time. The other thing is that they do is hire developmentally disabled persons, this I’ll give them a plus for.

Kroger also just before the plague instituted a service charge for cash back debit card transactions. Haven’t used that there since, neither Meijer, ALDI, Walmart or the local Spartan store assess that either.

The in store pharmacy used to be good, again staff has changed, remains to be seen how this will go, so far my last refill was a train wreck.
Actually have had problems with them going back a couple of years, in fact if I saw the pharmacy manager in there I’d leave and go back another time, useless would have been a complement to her. Looking to change pharmacies as my insurance changes in January, might try Walgreen’s this time around.

We only have a “Thriftway” here. Which was evidently named by a person with a sarcastic sense of humor.

quote:

Originally posted by Schmelby:
I grocery shop only every 10 to 14 days. So when I do go I may have 75 items in my cart.
There are now 22 self checkout lanes and only one lane open where a cashier scans your items,
and even then you have to bag yourself. There were at least 10 people in line for the one cashier
with full carts. I guess what bugs me is there are at least six employees just standing around
watching the people doing self checkout. Take 2 or 3 of them and open more lanes!!
180 dollars to do all the work myself. I'll try Meijers or Aldis. Rant over.

I've got bad news for you. Selection at Aldi's sucks, you have to bag your own and supply the bags. As for Meijer's, they are worse than Krogers, plan on 20 minutes in what ever single line is open and the wait at self checkout can be over 15 minutes on a Saturday.

If you want to get thru checkout relatively quickly they go to Shoppers Market, they do not have self checkout and you will usually find at least 3 or 4 lanes open.