Kroger update

Bob wonders--What is the aisle of shame? What line?

Olympia elucidates--The "Aisle of Shame" is the aisle of random things like home goods and clothing. So dubbed by lovers of the aisle. It has dedicated online communities to share love for and photos of AoS items.

The line is what those of us in non-self checkout locations must suffer to shop at Aldi. In some areas, there is no such thing as "quickly announcing an employee to the front."

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@Fatlady wrote:

I agree with Olympia- the added deli thing with descriptions of the clerk and looking at chicken and also the bakery items even with the Murrays cheese removed took a lot longer. Trying to record names and descriptions of a minimum of 4 and possible 5 associates with a full serve check was a bit much. Like others I took the in stores to balance the pick ups. I am not going to go crazy trying to get shops which in my opinion are a bit too much work for too little pay. I will shop at Walmart, Aldi and Meijer which surprising I learned from doing shops there often has great deals a lot better than Kroger in the weekly ad. I was buying a lot of Kroger shop items for my son and his family- they will not be getting much with the $10 in store shops.

I figure I might do my local ones now and again now for fresh produce but do the bulk of my pantry and frozen stuff at Costco and Trader Joe's. For me, the pickups were the real value. Doing a pickup and in store seemed like a somewhat fair amount of work for $40 in groceries and $10 pay.

Yes Aldi relatively new on Left Coast, no self check here and always a line at checkout, plus the whole cart thing annoys me. Ours replaced a Fresh and Easy storefront after they bailed. The union protested self checkout in California so they were not built with them. I don't find Trader Joe's all that inexpensive and many have horribly congested parking lots. I have a route that includes Grocery Outlet ,a "treasure hunt" venue which carries nearly expired goods, similar to the sadly-demised 99 Cent Only.

Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 02/25/2025 04:42PM by melg.

@melg wrote:

Yes Aldi relatively new on Left Coast, no self check here and always a line at checkout, plus the whole cart thing annoys me. Ours replaced a Fresh and Easy storefront after they bailed. The union protested self checkout in California so they were not built with them. I don't find Trader Joe's all that inexpensive and many have horribly congested parking lots. I have a route that includes Grocery Outlet ,a "treasure hunt" venue which carries nearly expired goods, similar to the sadly-demised 99 Cent Only.

I feel like each of these stores has their own strengths. TJs for me, is pretty good for nuts, dried fruit and the specialty bread we eat. I also really like their green salsa so I try to pick that up. Their produce quality can sometimes be awful with berries expiring quickly or already moldy in the bottom of the container. But they also get some fun things like the plum cherry hybrids.

I haven't been buying anything at Aldi except the aisle of shame items. I guess I might start pricing the food now.

Costco can be really good but I don't need volumes of produce for my household.

To paraphrase Dinah Washington, "What A Difference A Coast Makes."

@shopperbob wrote:

To paraphrase Dinah Washington, "What A Difference A Coast Makes."

You're on the North coast, right?

The Kroger program has been amazing for my family and we started on them in the beginning when they were with the "previous" company and when there were only in-store shops. With the "current" company they were able to get other types of shops and that's been really cool. So many people complaining here about pick up and fuel being "paused" for a bit. Those shops will be back. Amy said so. Those shops weren't even part of the shops offered by the "previous" company.

My sister and my daughter shop in Arizona, my brother shops in Washington and my husband and I shop in California.

Amy's email said that the pick up and fuel programs are, "...being redeveloped this year to prepare for a more central role in the program in the future." I asked her what will happen to the in-store shops if nobody takes them because they don't have the other shops. She said the schedulers will recruit others who will take them. And then when the other programs return we will have even more competition. I don't want more competition.

My family is staying with these shops and not abandoning ship because we are thankful for these shops and look forward to the other shops returning when they do.

I've also been doing Kroger since the previous MSC, when it was just the in-store shops. I'm just grateful I don't have to ask inane questions of the workers. I'll keep doing the in-store shops.

@fancystephanie wrote:

I've also been doing Kroger since the previous MSC, when it was just the in-store shops. I'm just grateful I don't have to ask inane questions of the workers. I'll keep doing the in-store shops.

What was it like before? It seems like the people who have been doing them a long time have a different perspective.

I'll miss those competitors shops too. In my area, I've been frequenting Sprouts and TJ's more.

I first did the Kroger shops with the previous MSC around COVID, in search of other types of shops. With the previous MSC, was the only time I saw a large bonus for certain locations.

stargazer20, are you Amy?

Olympia, first, I live in SW Ohio. Next, those idiotic questions from the past were difficult, as I was either considered a fool or was outed as a shopper.

My situation of never having the slightest interest in pick-ups certainly tempered any disappointment I would have experienced; I only lost the fuels. In addition, the Kroger's are secondary to my reason for being in the areas I cover.

I am one of Amy's shoppers.

@Okie wrote:

I'll miss those competitors shops too. In my area, I've been frequenting Sprouts and TJ's more.

I first did the Kroger shops with the previous MSC around COVID, in search of other types of shops. With the previous MSC, was the only time I saw a large bonus for certain locations.

stargazer20, are you Amy?

I am one of Amy's shoppers. I probably talk to her 2x each week. She's probably tired of me.

@shopperbob wrote:

Olympia, first, I live in SW Ohio. Next, those idiotic questions from the past were difficult, as I was either considered a fool or was outed as a shopper.

My situation of never having the slightest interest in pick-ups certainly tempered any disappointment I would have experienced; I only lost the fuels. In addition, the Kroger's are secondary to my reason for being in the areas I cover.

Bob, I'm aware. I have a lot of love for the great state of Ohio. SW Ohio is definitely closer to the coast on the North than the East.

What did you mean by your coast quote?

We might be separated more by generation than geography.

I have no experience with questions from the past that may have had you considered a fool. So I'm in the dark again on your references.

Olympia, the only North coast of which I am aware would be the Arctic. I agree, concerning the generational comment; I am 82.

Dinah Washington sang "What A Difference A Day Makes." I was addressing, what I thought was your area of the left coast, California, Oregon or Washington.

In my town, all Aldi's, except one, have self-checks. When I, out of curiosity, inquired as to why that location, which only opened last yr., did not include the scanners, I was informed Aldi's was considering a return to registers. Personally, I much prefer the express nature of self-scan. It is to the extent, I only select a single Kroger's without scanners. It opened in 1958, is 2 miles from my house and I drive by it a minimum of thrice a week.

I'll stay with them for the 'We baked too Much"

@shopperbob wrote:

Olympia, the only North coast of which I am aware would be the Arctic. I agree, concerning the generational comment; I am 82.

Dinah Washington sang "What A Difference A Day Makes." I was addressing, what I thought was your area of the left coast, California, Oregon or Washington.

In my town, all Aldi's, except one, have self-checks. When I, out of curiosity, inquired as to why that location, which only opened last yr., did not include the scanners, I was informed Aldi's was considering a return to registers. Personally, I much prefer the express nature of self-scan. It is to the extent, I only select a single Kroger's without scanners. It opened in 1958, is 2 miles from my house and I drive by it a minimum of thrice a week.

Some in Ohio refer to Erie and the other Great Lakes as the North Coast. I lived for some years in Cleveland.

I assumed wrongly your coast comment was about the Aisle of Shame.

There are a few self checkouts here but not at all Aldi locations. I have read online there’s a big loss concern with them. I have seen quite a few altercations over theft at Kroger owner locations here so I can only image the issues they have at low staffed Aldi stores.

The stupid question shops were awful..

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2025 02:24AM by melg.

@olympia tennenbaum wrote:

I have no experience with questions from the past that may have had you considered a fool. So I'm in the dark again on your references.

Hi Oly - The previous company required asking scripted questions of the clerks in produce, deli/bakery and meat departments. The shops took a lot more time than they do now and the questions seemed to out you as the mystery shopper.
Questions like: Can you tell me how to store my bananas so they don't turn black? How do you know when avocados are ripe? What are navel oranges? How do you cook salmon? How is the cole slaw made?
They also wanted to know if the deli clerk offered you samples.

shopper bob is correct, the questions made you look like a fool . On one shop when I asked how to cook fish at the meat counter; a sweet young customer overheard me and asked me if I knew how to use the internet, she let me know it had lots of information to help me with cooking. :-)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2025 03:09AM by 724PM.

The question s from the past were for produce. Things folks really wanted to know such as " what can I do with iceberg lettuce besides use it in a salad?" or " These bananas are green, do you think they will ever turn yellow?" or "I want to bake a pie tonight. Can I mix strawberries and blueberries in it?"

I used to do Publix shops and there were silly questions. For produce I had to ask about whether to keep tomatoes on counter or in fridge. For seafood I had to ask difference between farm raised and wild caught fish. For meat some other stupid question. I know after asking on one shop by the time I asked it on next shop I was spotted as a shopper. I felt like a fool doing the shops.

Oh, wow, those sound really awful! Here I thought it was weird just hanging around the meat and deli and never making purchases.

Was it always the same question or did they change? If you always had to ask the same question that sounds like it would really out you. Did you need to report their response? Like the "kind" associate who asked if you knew how to use the internet! lol.

I particularly like the new format for the instore shops. Produce and meat observations are lower. I have not encountered problems with doing the Deli portion. The only issue is that the Deli area is near the entrance of the store, so I perform it before where it appears on the report. I complete my report as I shop. I enter the Deli associate description in my text to myself.

I will miss the Pick up and fuel shops. I am caretaking someone at home, so we use a ton of laundry detergent. Also bought firewood and fire logs which offset heating costs somewhat. Not worth paying on my own. I used the fuel shops to earn a fee and spent between $10-$20 for the instore. $10 fuel fee covered my operating expenses.

Do not read so much, look about you and think of what you see there.
Richard Feynman-- letter to Ashok Arora, 4 January 1967, published in Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track (2005) p. 230

I am in SW Ohio. Non-desirable competitor shops have listed earlier than normal today.

Competitor in store shops showed up today. Picked up 3 before they were gone.

I reached out to the scheduler, who was not the same as I have seen posting the shops in the past for my area. Anyway, I asked if the fuel and pickup shops were on pause for Ohio, and the response was, "They are on pause for all states." So, in addition to the new scheduler, who didn't send out a message regarding the change in lineup, and the lower quantity of shops now for the Kroger locations, it's going to be a dismal year. I do miss the old MSC where you could pick two days to do the shop, although remember, we had to do deli purchases then, which took more time than the current shops require.

I logged in two minutes late. If there were competitor in stores for the west coast, they disappeared before I saw any. Shops are still flying off the board. Maybe people are taking more to make up for the loss of the pickups?

TO OLYMPIA: The old MSC used to provide a list of three or so questions per department for that month's shops. They were changed on a regular basis, to help keep you from being "outed."

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2025 06:26PM by anteek.

I missed the timeframe when the competitor shops got posted. Only one remote location remaining. I grabbed a couple of in-store. The shops got claimed relatively quickly.

@olympia tennenbaum wrote:

Was it always the same question or did they change?

It changed with Covid. The stupid questions disappeared and the whole survey got streamlined after Covid hit in 2020 - probably to limit social interaction.

Edit - sorry, I thought you were asking WHEN they went away lol.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2025 06:50PM by fancystephanie.

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