Are Kroger shops posting today?

I would think so. My wife and I are waiting at our computers to see. It is usually the Wednesday before the last weekend of the month, but who knows. They are usually out by now, (1:18 central time).

Not posting today. I think it’s next week.

I’m still going to keep an eye on it. You just never know.

My scheduler said next Wednesday or Thursday. There are shops open in m my area that go through the 30th.

Anyone else getting database errors when logging into the forum. "SQL syntax errors".

@Equine24 wrote:

Anyone else getting database errors when logging into the forum. "SQL syntax errors".

Yes, I am. So annoying.

I asked my scheduler, and she said this was the only 5-week rotation of the year. They'll go out next Wednesday.

no Krogers today.. I didn't get my puppies today because I kept waiting, and then waiting on email answers..

Thanks for the info. I was wondering why they didn't come out. Now I don't have to stalk the site lol.

I got an email saying that it will be next Wednesday, January 31st.

you are lucky to get emails from schedulers. I NEVER get any emails and barely get replies to emails I send her!

Some of us got that info in our West Coast scheduler's email blast sent over a week ago. She also included this request for her shoppers:
"I realize when the new Kroger project launches, it is pretty much a feeding frenzy to self-assign as many shops as possible for whatever dates you can, and then adjust later on. When you do this, it hurts our program and can be a SCHEDULING NIGHTMARE. Please self-assign for dates you are confident you can perform the shops. If you aren’t sure when you can perform a shop, don’t take the shop. You have the ability in most cases to change the date once on each shop, as long as you are in good standing. Please try hard to not need to change the date of any shop more than that unless you are ill or there is severe weather. Just like a “real job” you make a commitment to perform your duties as scheduled, without issues. Please treat your shopping experience the same."

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/2024 08:37PM by melg.

@melg Thanks for posting. I didn't get that email.

We don't get those emails.. we get no news at all unless we ask, or see someone say something about it here. I missed picking up these sickly rescue puppies by a day because of them not telling us anything and not having any kind of news or notice posted on the website.

One of these guys is touch and go, don't know if he's going to survive until their vet appointment. If I could have picked them up on Wednesday and I could have gotten him to see the vet yesterday.

AFAIK they go to regular Kroger shoppers on the West Coast. I don't post about the releases in advance here because of some rude responses to my other posts. Just call me condescending.

Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/2024 05:18PM by melg.

I just had to laugh at the email from my scheduler today — they are “reducing the payment fee for pickups from $32 to $30 to better reflect what fees shoppers are being charged after the pandemic” — with the logic that because the stores are not charging as much of a pickup fee, that the fees should go down… I reaaaaly want to reply and simply state… “…and what about inflation?”.

Seriously guys… wtf. Even with a $32 shop fee that does not include a pickup fee, I am certainly being reimbursed for less groceries than before the pandemic even if a fee was involved.

@ngbmediashop wrote:

I just had to laugh at the email from my scheduler today — they are “reducing the payment fee for pickups from $32 to $30 to better reflect what fees shoppers are being charged after the pandemic” — with the logic that because the stores are not charging as much of a pickup fee, that the fees should go down… I reaaaaly want to reply and simply state… “…and what about inflation?”.

Seriously guys… wtf. Even with a $32 shop fee that does not include a pickup fee, I am certainly being reimbursed for less groceries than before the pandemic even if a fee was involved.

How to say you don't respect me without saying you don't respect me...

Waiting for the next email that'll say "and we've added the following things to the in store shops - oranges, zucchini, chicken livers, bagged nuts (in shell), and a survey of aisles 1, 7, and 9. We've piloted these additions and estimate it will only add an extra 3.5 minutes to your shop. Oh, and the reimbursement has changed to $7.49."

Also, please don't sign up too quickly. It only hurts our program.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/29/2024 09:46PM by olympia tennenbaum.

Wish they would raise the pitiful $9 reimbursement for in store shops! $9 hardly covers the 3 required items!

Shoppers are self-employed independent contractors. As such, the ability exists to refrain from any work that is deemed to be, for whatever reason, unacceptable. If the work:reward of Kroger jobs does not suit one, simply pass. Until such time as the majority take that stance, which I do not believe will ever occur, there is zero chance that Kroger, or any client, would transition from being an Arab & camel company.

Now, for the reasons I complete Kroger shops.

1-An 8 hr. window. If it were only three, as an example, they would not appeal to me.
2-A relatively easy manner by which I am usually able, if needed, to reschedule.
3-I completed my first shop for the scheduler in my area in the Fall of 2005; communication is not a problem.
4-The shops I choose are only in areas I travel on non-shopping business.
5-All Krogers I have visited,have an affordable produce table located behind the bananas.
6-Usually there are items in the markdown aged meat section. Being an omnivore, they afford an acceptable savings.

If the work ever became unacceptable, I would merely pass. Such are the advantages of being an IC.

I'm not going to make excuses for the MSC, or the Client for that matter. I don't much care. The Kroger shops are how I buy my groceries for the month for little or no money out of pocket. I don't eat well, but I also don't have to get food stamps to keep myself and my dogs fed.

If I didn't need to buy groceries every month, if I could sustain myself with what I can grow here at home, then I would probably not do Kroger shops because then they would need to create profit, and not just be a zero sum gain.

The way the MSC has the payment worded, or had, it was $25 groceries reimbursed, and $7 for pick up fee. I don't know about Kroger in other places, but here, if you spend more than $30 there is no pick up fee. I usually load my cart with just enough to insure that whatever I buy, minus the coupons I use, still comes in at a price that will be just over reimbursement.

I haven't seen the new rules, because we don't seem to get any advance notice of the changes here. But if they say they are now reimbursing $30 for groceries that is actually an increase in the reimbursement.

If those same rules apply to the competitor shops, I may cut back seriously on them. Most of the competitor shops don't waive the pick up fee until your purchase goes over $35. So no matter how you slice it, you're going to be $5 - $7 out of pocket on all of the competitor shops. The only competitor shops we have around here are Target, Publix and Walmart. We don't even get Aldi competitor shops here, even though there are Aldi stores all over here, some just blocks from Kroger stores, that could definitely be considered a competitor. And Publix seems to not sell the yogurt that I liked to buy from them anymore, so the only thing they have that interests me is ginger ale in glass bottles now.

People vent. That's something people do on forums and one of the advantages of being an IC.

I wasn't happy with the email but was at least glad I got the email. I wrote the scheduler recently when February shops were not posted as expected. She wrote me back and said she covered that in a previous email. When I let her know I did not receive that email, she wrote back and said she sent that email only to her shoppers who had shops in January. Since I was up to my self-assign limits, I didn't get any January shops. All my local shops were taken/assigned to other shoppers.

Communication was never a problem with this scheduler before. In fact, she was always responsive and helpful before this. I don't know why she would only email those shoppers who had January shops. I did Kroger shops every month except for January, and only because I couldn't self-assign. It bothered me that she told me she covered something in an email when she didn't email all her shoppers. If I had gotten her email, why would I have bothered to ask?

@shopperbob wrote:

Shoppers are self-employed independent contractors. As such, the ability exists to refrain from any work that is deemed to be, for whatever reason, unacceptable. If the work:reward of Kroger jobs does not suit one, simply pass. Until such time as the majority take that stance, which I do not believe will ever occur, there is zero chance that Kroger, or any client, would transition from being an Arab & camel company.

If the work ever became unacceptable, I would merely pass. Such are the advantages of being an IC.

So in other words — you are completely OK with this being a race to the bottom. You are also OK with the quality of work going down, as you scrape the bottom of the barrel and end up with shoppers who do this because they need to vs. doing it professionally as a main or side income — and as that happens, less clients retain a mystery shopping program due to less accurate shops and less detailed reports. Your also OK with companies taking advantage of these people that will do it “at all costs” — think the people that used to frequent the message boards in EasyShift — I had to shake my head that people would put up with so much, and fight over $.50 — but yet — if I was in a low financial place, I would as well.

While I don’t agree that ICs should be considered “employees”, and I’m not on the whole train of guaranteeing a particular compensation, I do feel that in the 10 years or so that I have been doing this, the fees have seemed to go down. Not even holding steady — but going down. I have a magic number in my head that is a certain hourly rate after expenses — it’s not a crazy hourly rate, and it’s just a bit above my state’s minimum wage — but if I don’t hit it, I don’t take the shop… period. I find I’ve been doing less work, because I’ve been hitting that number a bit less — and the number has stayed the same — theoretically it should be going up with wages and inflation.

Obviously many people don’t think like that — because when I’ve pointed my logic out to schedulers, many seem to make it sound as if they are providing us a service by offering this work to us. Yes — it’s certainly pretty flexible, which is great — but I’m only going to be taking less and less work and waiting for fewer shops with larger bonuses.

I’ve been in a place where I’ve needed to do whatever I need to do to scrape by — and that includes accepting way less pay for something than I should obviously do it for. Anyone who seems OK with shop fees going down while inflation continues to go up, also seems OK to take advantage of people in these situations. You could post a shop that reimburses $3 for groceries — and in some places — people would take it — and do a report for it as well — because if they don’t, their kids won’t be fed. It doesn’t mean anyone should be OK with it.

@Morledzep wrote:

I haven't seen the new rules, because we don't seem to get any advance notice of the changes here. But if they say they are now reimbursing $30 for groceries that is actually an increase in the reimbursement.

If those same rules apply to the competitor shops, I may cut back seriously on them. Most of the competitor shops don't waive the pick up fee until your purchase goes over $35. So no matter how you slice it, you're going to be $5 - $7 out of pocket on all of the competitor shops. The only competitor shops we have around here are Target, Publix and Walmart. We don't even get Aldi competitor shops here, even though there are Aldi stores all over here, some just blocks from Kroger stores, that could definitely be considered a competitor. And Publix seems to not sell the yogurt that I liked to buy from them anymore, so the only thing they have that interests me is ginger ale in glass bottles now.

The way they have been working in my area is that it has been a flat $32 reimbursement — so if I pick up $40 in groceries, I pay basically $8. If you buy under $25 in groceries, they tack on a fee — which around here is $5, making the total $30. Some areas it had been $7. You are stupid to buy $25 in groceries though generally — if you add a candy bar for $1 it makes the total $26 vs $30 with no fee. The “idea” is that these are $25 reimbursed shops — but they really have been reimbursing $32 “to cover whatever fees” — I always buy $40 or so in groceries (in case an item is out of stock that would drop me below $32, because then I am losing money), so dropping this down to $30 certainly is always a reduction in my case. If it had always been a $25 shop — why just not reimburse $25 + fees, if there are any?

ng,

yep, they have been reimbursing $32 even if it's all groceries and not fees. which is fair, because if bought the $25 worth of groceries, you would have to pay the fee, and they would have to reimburse that, which would basically be the same thing. And I understand that it is the way it has worked.

But if they reimburse $30 worth of groceries, they no longer have to include the fees, so, at least on their books, they are increasing the grocery reimbursement and eliminating the need to reimburse the pick up fees.

I can't say I like it, because I don't. But it's still $30 of free groceries 5 or 6 times during each rotation. I can't turn that down. And the inside shops are the same for me, it may say $9 fee and $9 reimbursement, but it's really $18 worth of free groceries to me.

I buy marked down stuff, sale items, and coupons that they send me, and I make sure I buy at least 3 different items, but I don't limit the number of items to just 3. If something I use is 10 for $10, I'll get 10, and then I'll find 2 different things.

ngbmediashop, you seem to be quite an assumptive person. It is my opinion you and I should not enter into any type of typed discussion.

Wow, a lot to respond to here. I'll go in order of posts.

First, I never get e-mails about Kroger shops. I wasn't sure what day they generally came out (or even if there was a specific day) until this thread. I never saw them post for January, but if they came out at the end of December, I was in the middle of inventory, so I must have missed them. I will be looking for them this week, so thank you for the heads-up.

Second, I wholeheartedly agree with @shopperbob. The term "willing victim" is an oxymoron. For one to be taken advantage, they would, at least in my head, be considered a victim. Here, nobody can make anybody take any IC job, no matter how many e-mails a scheduler sends, pleading for help. You always - always - have a choice. You may not like the choice or the circumstances - and on that point I concur with @ngbmediashop - but you still have a choice. Millions of low-income people have no idea about IC work, yet, somehow, they manage to make it doing something. If IC work gets to a level where one feels it is no longer beneficial, I would recommend finding out how those that don't do IC work make it. For me, personally, the flexibility and not having a boss is part of the payment. When I think about some of the work I've done in my life where I didn't have those extras, I can't put a price tag on them. To bring this subject home, I'm reminded of the parable where a landowner hires vineyard workers for the day. He hires them at different times during the day, and agrees to pay them each a day's wage. At the end of the day, the workers who were hired early in the morning complained that those hired late in the day received the same payment as they did. They apparently thought the workers who did not work as long should have been paid less, or they should have been paid more. The landowner gently reminded them that they agreed to the payment. In other words, they could have said no. They were hardly taken advantage. The landowner was fair, and kept his word.

Third, to further expand on the point where @ngbmediashop and I concur, I believe if you own a company, you treat the people that work for you with respect, and you do right by them. While legally there is a difference between IC workers and employees, for me, if I had workers to assist with my business, I would look beyond that. That's because, as a Christian, I run my business to serve God, not man. Putting God first means I treat those that work for me fairly. If I owned an MSC, I would probably do it differently. If it were feasible to pay IC workers more, I would. I'd also demand their best work, though. That's the other side of the coin. Methinks many MSCs are content with mediocre work. If they are and the client is happy, well, they've found a happy medium, I suppose.

While it is easy to look at any given MSC and say they treat their IC workers unfairly, I don't know what their finances are. Maybe you do. I don't know. From my experience, there are good MSCs and bad MSCs. The market will determine which MSCs survive. Every client wants more bang for their buck, and each MSC is competing with other MSCs for the business. In turn, each shopper is competing with other shoppers for the lowest bid.

While I agree that it is disappointing if a fee is lowered, or one is banned from a shop, or whatever, the fact remains the same: As an IC worker, you are under a legal, binding contract, that his almost, if not completely, slanted in the favor of the MSC. I've been involved in many contracts outside IC work. In my previous life, years ago, I was able to negotiate my contract. Even then, it was still slanted in favor of my employer. What I mean is that they could still get rid of me for any reason, change my duties on a whim, change my hours, or not use my services at all. As long as they paid me and met whatever perks I had placed in the contract, they were good in the eyes of the law. Meanwhile, although financially I benefited, I couldn't just up and quit without repercussions. I couldn't go work for a competitor. There were other things I couldn't do. My point is that I went into those contracts with my eyes wide open. I knew the downsides, but I gauged the financial benefits worth it. I've said before I had very little peace during that season of my life. I make much less now, and do way more physical work. But, I have peace. That's largely because of the flexibility of when I work and what jobs I work. In my book, though I have far less cash than I have at other points in my life, and it is financially hard, the flexibility more than makes up for it. That won't be the case for everybody. It may not be the case for me down the line. That's why you have to be ready to pivot to something else. For me, I am leaning on my e-commerce business. I want to get to the point that I can do that full-time. I'm probably still 18–24 months away from that. Until then, I'll still take the occasional $4 orange app job, if I'm nearby.

Almost forgot, @Morledzep, you inspire me.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/2024 06:31AM by ServiceAward.

@shopperbob wrote:

ngbmediashop, you seem to be quite an assumptive person. It is my opinion you and I should not enter into any type of typed discussion.

Bob, sometimes you make me think, and sometimes you make me laugh. Laughing now.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/2024 07:51PM by 1forum1.

1forum1 comments--Bob, sometimes you make me think, and sometimes you make me laugh. Laughing now.

Bob's reply--As I view your comment as a compliment, thank you.

Did anyone see the Kroger shops posted yesterday and then disappear? I saw around 300 and signed up for 5 then they all disappeared. They haven’t showed back up but I still have the 5 I requested in my assignment dashboard number. They were only the in store shops no pickups. Just wasn’t sure if anyone saw this?