Decline of Macy's, Kroger's (Cleveland, Mason: closing, restaurant, prices)

[WRnative]

Originally Posted by Sarah Perry

Everybody has different standards, but I think Kroger's self-checkouts are fine. I use them all the time. It would be nice if they'd upgrade them to allow the customer to scan coupons--occasionally I have to wait on the attendant to do that. It's really my only complaint.

Giant Eagle self-scanners now handle coupons well. Sometimes, there used to be problems, but I haven't had any in many months, but I mostly use store coupons generated at purchase on a previous trip.

[WILWRadio]

Originally Posted by WRnative

If your experience is typical, this is a sad indictment of Kroger.

I use self check-out machines most of the time at Giant Eagle and rarely have any problem. I've even become expert at entering produce codes, even when not present on packaging.

Self check-out is great when only purchasing 12 or fewer items, typical for me as I usually shop at three different groceries as well as farm markets in season.

It's not just Kroger. Virtually every other store where I've used them I've also had issues. I think the machines can't keep up with my data input. Still a way to go before this technology is perfected. Not a Kroger problem as much as it is with the company that designs, builds and provides the machines.

[PerryMason614]

I like the scanners at certain Meijer stores. I'm pretty fast when it comes to getting through the checkouts and scanning things. In fact, I am so fast, that I usually confuse the scanner and get an item for free every now and then.

[jlawrence01]

I have use Kroger's scanners all over the country and have never had any problems with them. They are far better than the other grocery stores and Walmart.

I will admit that if I am buying something like a gift card, I will go to a live cashier and let him handle it.

Either way, it is so much better than Safeway where they put the s-l-o-w-e-s-t cashier on the express line and she insists on having a conversation with EACH customer when there are eight to ten people in line. Yes, it is that bad.

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If I had any concern about Kroger's as an investor, I would be more concerned about how "long in the tooth" a lot of their stores are looking. I was very unimpressed with their TN and NC stores (excluding Harris Teeter). However, I was really disappointed at the appearance of their Fred Meyer stores in the Boise area. They were certainly a major step down from the Smith stores in Nevada and Eastern Idaho.

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If Kroger's really wants a winning small store model, maybe they should relook at their Kwik Trip / Dillon's combo store in Greensburg, KS. When Greensburg was destroyed by a tornado ten years ago, the Dillon's store was destroyed. Instead of rebuilding the store in an area where the population halved, they expanded the convenience store to include a good selection of groceries AT GROCERY STORE PRICES. I looked through the selection and was amazed at the great selection that they could offer in a grocery store less than half the size of an Aldi store.

[PerryMason614]

Originally Posted by jlawrence01

I have use Kroger's scanners all over the country and have never had any problems with them. They are far better than the other grocery stores and Walmart.

I will admit that if I am buying something like a gift card, I will go to a live cashier and let him handle it.

Either way, it is so much better than Safeway where they put the s-l-o-w-e-s-t cashier on the express line and she insists on having a conversation with EACH customer when there are eight to ten people in line. Yes, it is that bad.

================

If I had any concern about Kroger's as an investor, I would be more concerned about how "long in the tooth" a lot of their stores are looking. I was very unimpressed with their TN and NC stores (excluding Harris Teeter). However, I was really disappointed at the appearance of their Fred Meyer stores in the Boise area. They were certainly a major step down from the Smith stores in Nevada and Eastern Idaho.

=================

If Kroger's really wants a winning small store model, maybe they should relook at their Kwik Trip / Dillon's combo store in Greensburg, KS. When Greensburg was destroyed by a tornado ten years ago, the Dillon's store was destroyed. Instead of rebuilding the store in an area where the population halved, they expanded the convenience store to include a good selection of groceries AT GROCERY STORE PRICES. I looked through the selection and was amazed at the great selection that they could offer in a grocery store less than half the size of an Aldi store.

I've seen a mix of stores over the years from Atlanta, Columbus, Cincinnati, Denver and Omaha, and I think they've mostly been in pretty good shape. Omaha surprised me since they are an also-ran in that market, but there are a lot of Kwik Trip stores there so maybe together they do pretty good business in Omaha.

Columbus has the same thing going on with Kroger/Turkey Hill. They're doing a good job covering the market with that combination. And you are correct, when I was in the Redneck Riviera, I appreciated the fact that the Tom Thumb (Kroger) convenience stores there carried Kroger products and were priced just a little higher than normal Kroger pricing. This really is a competitive advantage for them.

The Central, Delta and Mid-Atlantic divisions seems to have a lot of older stores but I know they've been on a building spree in Virginia.

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by PerryMason614

I've seen a mix of stores over the years from Atlanta, Columbus, Cincinnati, Denver and Omaha, and I think they've mostly been in pretty good shape. Omaha surprised me since they are an also-ran in that market, but there are a lot of Kwik Trip stores there so maybe together they do pretty good business in Omaha.

.

Head into a HyVee store in Iowa or Nebraska. Each HyVee store has five or six stations of prepared foods that are as good as many of the restaurants in the area. When we were in the area, we will eat several of the meals at HyVee.

The new Fry's Marketpace tries to do something similar BUT they never make the commitment to having enough personnel to staff it. When I go into Fry's for lunch, I am NOT going to wait 20+ minutes or one lady to serve twelve customers ahead of me. When I complain to the store GM, all I hear is that "we don't have the payroll.

Meanwhile, when I am at the "show" store at Anderson, there are always 15-20 employees at the various stations.

[PerryMason614]

Originally Posted by jlawrence01

Head into a HyVee store in Iowa or Nebraska. Each HyVee store has five or six stations of prepared foods that are as good as many of the restaurants in the area. When we were in the area, we will eat several of the meals at HyVee.

The new Fry's Marketpace tries to do something similar BUT they never make the commitment to having enough personnel to staff it. When I go into Fry's for lunch, I am NOT going to wait 20+ minutes or one lady to serve twelve customers ahead of me. When I complain to the store GM, all I hear is that "we don't have the payroll.

Meanwhile, when I am at the "show" store at Anderson, there are always 15-20 employees at the various stations.

Funny you should mention that. I was in a Hy-Vee store in rural Iowa within the past couple of weeks and since no other place was open, we had Sunday lunch at the local Hy-Vee store. Not much in terms of ambiance, but the food was very good. It reminded me of the old days when my grandparents would take us to the Harvest House Cafeteria at the mall Woolworth's.

Kroger should get more serious about doing this sort of thing if it can. I just paid $7 for a chicken sandwich and a Ceasar Salad at Wendy's tonight. I'm pretty sure the Hy-Vee meal was in that price range (I didn't pay) and it was a lot better. Plus, I got myself a banana and some soybean yogurt (I was in Iowa, after all) and it was far more satisfying than restaurant grease. Giant Eagle tries to do this, but I haven't really had lunch at the store closest to me.

Hy-Vee is a lot pricier than Kroger on the grocery side, though. Their stores also don't look as good as Kroger stores do. I'm really surprised that Baker's isn't more neck-and-neck with Hy-Vee in Omaha.

[WILWRadio]

^^^I used to shop at Hy Vee regularly for years when I lived in the KC area. Very good store. Lots of speciality items that can't be found in other grocery stores. Odense Almond Paste and Marzipan for example. Also they make their own Bratwurst. Agree that Kroger should look into this kind of thing as well.

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by PerryMason614

Kroger should get more serious about doing this sort of thing if it can. I just paid $7 for a chicken sandwich and a Ceasar Salad at Wendy's tonight. I'm pretty sure the Hy-Vee meal was in that price range (I didn't pay) and it was a lot better. Plus, I got myself a banana and some soybean yogurt (I was in Iowa, after all) and it was far more satisfying than restaurant grease. Giant Eagle tries to do this, but I haven't really had lunch at the store closest to me.

Hy-Vee is a lot pricier than Kroger on the grocery side, though. Their stores also don't look as good as Kroger stores do. I'm really surprised that Baker's isn't more neck-and-neck with Hy-Vee in Omaha.

Last month, at the new Fry's Marketplace store, we purchased a quarter chicken and two sides for $4.99 and three massive chicken strips and two sides for $5.49. I think that was a far better deal IMO than any of the fast food meals with the exception of the $5 lunch deals at El Pollo Loco.

HOWEVER, we had to wait for 15+ minutes to get the deal. To me, that is a killer.

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As for "pick up" meals, no body does it better than Boise based Winco Foods. They have excellent sandwiches for $1.99-2.49 and great prepared salads. They sell a wicked salad that is as large as you would get at a sit down place for under $4.

[PerryMason614]

Originally Posted by jlawrence01

Last month, at the new Fry's Marketplace store, we purchased a quarter chicken and two sides for $4.99 and three massive chicken strips and two sides for $5.49. I think that was a far better deal IMO than any of the fast food meals with the exception of the $5 lunch deals at El Pollo Loco.

HOWEVER, we had to wait for 15+ minutes to get the deal. To me, that is a killer.

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As for "pick up" meals, no body does it better than Boise based Winco Foods. They have excellent sandwiches for $1.99-2.49 and great prepared salads. They sell a wicked salad that is as large as you would get at a sit down place for under $4.

Yeah, we got our meals at Hy-Vee practically instantly. And they had a segregated seating area, right when you walk in at the front of the store. It wasn't just some random chairs and tables thrown up in the middle of the store. From the menu board, to having actual silverware, HyVee put a little more effort into making it run like a real restaurant than other stores do. They even had some retarded guy running around cleaning up the tables -- no garbage cans to dump the trash yourself. (No knock on the retarded guy, I think it was nice that they gave him a job.)

For those who have never been to a Hy-Vee store, don't get the impression that this was a restaurant. It was similar to what you would see in a Kroger store but with enough additional touches that it was a little more consumer-friendly and ran a tad more like a restaurant.

However, Hi-Vee had no way to ring up my banana with my meal, which is odd considering that the deli / restaurant was right next to the produce department. I had to go through the regular checkouts to get my banana and soybean yogurt.